"Monseigneur would have little trouble in his regency if his wish were realized," said Chatran.
"/Tant mieux/, so long as I had little odium, as well as little trouble,—a happiness which, thanks to you and Dubois, I am not likely to enjoy,—but there is the carriage!"
And the Duke pointed to a dark, plain carriage, which we had suddenly come upon.
"Count Devereux," said the merry Regent, "you will enter; my duty requires that, at this seductive hour, I should see a young gentleman of your dangerous age safely lodged at his hotel!"
We entered, Chatran gave the orders, and we drove off rapidly.
The Regent hummed a tune, and his two companions listened to it in respectful silence.
"Well, well, Messieurs," said he, bursting out at last into open voice, "I will ever believe, in future, that the gods /do/ look benignantly on us worshippers of the Alma Venus! Do you know much of Tibullus, Monsieur Devereux? And can you assist my memory with the continuation of the line—
"'Quisquis amore tenetur, eat—'"
"'tutusque sacerque Qualibet, insidias non timuisse decet,'"*
answered I.