"What, am I not to hear why he was so fierce with me?"
"You don't care a fig for his fierceness, Mr Dale," he reminded me, laughing.
I saw that I was caught, and had the sense to show no annoyance, although I must confess to a very lively curiosity.
"Your Grace wishes to be alone with M. de Fontelles?" I asked readily and deferentially.
"For a little while, if you'll give us leave," he answered, but he added to Carford, "No, you needn't move, Carford."
So I made my bow and left them, not well pleased, for my brain was on the rack to discover what might be the secret which hung on that mysterious phrase, and which I had so nearly surprised from M. de Fontelles.
"The gist of it," said I to myself, as I turned to the kitchen, "lies, if I am not mistaken, in the third member. For when I had said Je viens, tu viens, the Duke interrupted me, crying, 'Any more?'"
I had made for the kitchen since there was no other room open to me, and I found it tenanted by the French servants of M. de Fontelles. Although peace had been made between them and the host, they sat in deep dejection; the reason was plain to see in two empty glasses and an empty bottle that stood on a table between them. Kindliness, aided, it may be, by another motive, made me resolve to cure their despondency.
"Gentlemen," said I in French, going up to them, "you do not drink!"