Arsène Lupin | Page 7

Marie in
a low voice.
There was an awkward silence. Marie broke it:
"Speaking of Madame de Relzieres, do you know that she is on pins
and needles with anxiety? Her son is fighting a duel to-day," she said.
"With whom?" said Sonia.
"No one knows. She got hold of a letter from the seconds," said Marie.
"My mind is quite at rest about Relzieres," said Germaine. "He's a
first-class swordsman. No one could beat him."
Sonia did not seem to share her freedom from anxiety. Her forehead
was puckered in little lines of perplexity, as if she were puzzling out
some problem; and there was a look of something very like fear in her
gentle eyes.
"Wasn't Relzieres a great friend of your fiance at one time?" said
Jeanne.
"A great friend? I should think he was," said Germaine. "Why, it was
through Relzieres that we got to know Jacques."
"Where was that?" said Marie.
"Here--in this very chateau," said Germaine.
"Actually in his own house?" said Marie, in some surprise.
"Yes; actually here. Isn't life funny?" said Germaine. "If, a few months
after his father's death, Jacques had not found himself hard- up, and

obliged to dispose of this chateau, to raise the money for his expedition
to the South Pole; and if papa and I had not wanted an historic chateau;
and lastly, if papa had not suffered from rheumatism, I should not be
calling myself in a month from now the Duchess of Charmerace."
"Now what on earth has your father's rheumatism got to do with your
being Duchess of Charmerace?" cried Jeanne.
"Everything," said Germaine. "Papa was afraid that this chateau was
damp. To prove to papa that he had nothing to fear, Jacques, en grand
seigneur, offered him his hospitality, here, at Charmerace, for three
weeks."
"That was truly ducal," said Marie.
"But he is always like that," said Sonia.
"Oh, he's all right in that way, little as he cares about society," said
Germaine. "Well, by a miracle my father got cured of his rheumatism
here. Jacques fell in love with me; papa made up his mind to buy the
chateau; and I demanded the hand of Jacques in marriage."
"You did? But you were only sixteen then," said Marie, with some
surprise.
"Yes; but even at sixteen a girl ought to know that a duke is a duke. I
did," said Germaine. "Then since Jacques was setting out for the South
Pole, and papa considered me much too young to get married, I
promised Jacques to wait for his return."
"Why, it was everything that's romantic!" cried Marie.
"Romantic? Oh, yes," said Germaine; and she pouted. "But between
ourselves, if I'd known that he was going to stay all that time at the
South Pole--"
"That's true," broke in Marie. "To go away for three years and stay
away seven--at the end of the world."

"All Germaine's beautiful youth," said Jeanne, with her malicious
smile.
"Thanks!" said Germaine tartly.
"Well, you ARE twenty-three. It's the flower of one's age," said Jeanne.
"Not quite twenty-three," said Germaine hastily. "And look at the
wretched luck I've had. The Duke falls ill and is treated at Montevideo.
As soon as he recovers, since he's the most obstinate person in the
world, he resolves to go on with the expedition. He sets out; and for an
age, without a word of warning, there's no more news of him--no news
of any kind. For six months, you know, we believed him dead."
"Dead? Oh, how unhappy you must have been!" said Sonia.
"Oh, don't speak of it! For six months I daren't put on a light frock,"
said Germaine, turning to her.
"A lot she must have cared for him," whispered Jeanne to Marie.
"Fortunately, one fine day, the letters began again. Three months ago a
telegram informed us that he was coming back; and at last the Duke
returned," said Germaine, with a theatrical air.
"The Duke returned," cried Jeanne, mimicking her.
"Never mind. Fancy waiting nearly seven years for one's fiance. That
was constancy," said Sonia.
"Oh, you're a sentimentalist, Mlle. Kritchnoff," said Jeanne, in a tone of
mockery. "It was the influence of the castle."
"What do you mean?" said Germaine.
"Oh, to own the castle of Charmerace and call oneself Mlle. Gournay-
Martin--it's not worth doing. One MUST become a duchess," said
Jeanne.

"Yes, yes; and for all this wonderful constancy, seven years of it,
Germaine was on the point of becoming engaged to another man," said
Marie, smiling.
"And he a mere baron," said Jeanne, laughing.
"What? Is that true?" said Sonia.
"Didn't you know, Mlle. Kritchnoff? She nearly became engaged to the
Duke's cousin, the Baron de Relzieres. It was not nearly so grand."
"Oh, it's all very well to laugh at me; but