She dropped, or rather heaved, a profound curtsey; and Tiretta bowed as profoundly—an obeisance in which he sought to include, furious as he was at heart, the object of this jobation. But Isabella, standing pale and haughty, was very far from responding.
“An apology, madam!” she said—“from us! He will please to inform the count! I think I have not heard you aright.”
“Pooh, child!” said the marquise good-humouredly. “You have heard; and I have heard. But it is possible we may draw different conclusions. Bon voyage, monsieur. We had some news of his Excellency’s passing.”
Tiretta rejoined his travelling companion, who during all this time had been chafing in his inability to detect what was passing within the enshrouding coverture of foliage. The archduke greeted him with some impatience.
“Well,” he said. “Did beauty accept the gage?”
“The gage,” said Tiretta, “lies sunk and damned to all eternity within the pool.”
“She threw it there?”
“I threw it there.”
“You, sir?”
“I, your Highness; and may you be damned with it before I consent ever again to risk being mistaken for your pander.”