The Indiscretion of the Duchess / Being a Story Concerning Two Ladies, a Nobleman, and a Necklace

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Table of

nts which caused it being softened by the influence of time and habit-and had the recommendation of leaving me, not only free to manage my own life as I pleased, but also possessed of a competence which added power to my freedom. And as to the indiscretions-well, to speak it in all modesty and with a becoming consciousness of human frailty, I think that the undoubted indiscretions-that I may use no harder term-which were

one who considers with a thoughtful mind the characters and the lives of those with whom he is brought in contact on his way through the world. The good in wicked folk, the depths in shallow folk, the designs of haphazard minds, the impulsive follies of the cunning-all these exist, to be dimly discerned by any one of us, to be ignored by none save those who are content to label a man with the name of one quality and ignore all else in him, but to be traced, fully understood, and intelligently shown forth only by the few who are gifted to read and expound the secrets of human hearts. That is a gift beyond my endowment, and fitted for a task too difficult for my hand. Frankly, I did not, always and throughout, discern a

deed, and tame, compared with the sequel. Yet even the beginning had a flavor of the unusual about it, strong enough to

up more gayly and triumphantly than ever, and his manner was redolent of high spirits. Yet it was a dull, somber, misty morning, for all that the month was July and another day or two would bring

nothing keeps you here; yet you stay in this bouillon of an

"But whither tends your impassioned spee

an extra secretary at the

-and, what is more, I hav

atulation

he continued, sitting down. "Ah, you sm

I. "I meant nothing of the sort. I smiled at your exhila

he waved his cigarette

rming, my d

aration is

to be said against he

me," said I. "But why

you; she invites m

s ennuyée,

, placed as she i

le m

He forbids her to see a single soul

away,

a special mission of inquiry to Alger

re you going to approach the su

t trust my d

too charitable-to o

of my sister's-they were brought up in the sam

od co

I, you know, suffer

dy Cynthi

ed in a moment. "Lady Cynthia being, however, in Switzerl

Norma

is there that

The du

in a small chateau, alone s

ant or two,

most stingy to her (though not, they say, to ev

temptation

s a greater!" and Gustave

of what?" I a

roud smile. Evidently he thought that the lady

, maintaining, howev

ave. "You will c

a polite message to that effect. That I was not much consoled needs no saying. That I required consolation will appear not unnatural when I say that the duchess was one of the most brilliant and well-known persons in French society; yes, and outside France also. For she was a cosmopolitan. Her father was French, her mother American; and she had passed two or three years in England before her marriage. She was very pretty, and, report said, as witty as a pretty woman need be. Once she had been rich, but the money was swallowed up by speculation; she and her father (the mother was

said Gustave, "wa

oughtfully. It was true that I

means you. She knows what friends we are; she knows you are eager t

rose, distrustful, cynical being, doubting the honesty of his friends

fireplace and rising to his feet, "is that you would refuse when I

h nothing could either

r it will amuse me," I returne

s on diploma

sion to

prec

hands in

, my dear Gustave," said I,

iumphantly, slapping me on the back. "And, in my sister's name,

blood between them

eflection, there was no reason why I sh

n and the place will be a desert in a week

one to Algeria, we certainly a

d go where he is

said Gustave, "where

ried, "be impol

esides, think how you wil

ted, pausing in my ea

a sweet memo

A

d, it is prodigiou

ot for

. Lady C

e the shield that protected him.

unwise," said

t in Gustave, with a kn

a plan as d

hess is," s

rom the foregoing conversation,-and if carefully tabulated the