Mrs. Cleveland bowed in her stateliest manner.
"You have undertaken, I learn, to pay the debts of Monsieur Cleveland, contracted before your marriage."
Mrs. Cleveland bowed again.
"I hold a note of his drawn in my favor for a thousand dollars, payable at sight, with interest, dated two years back."
"What was it given for?" asked Mrs. Cleveland, with some asperity.
"Pardon me, madam—I cannot state that without the permission of your husband."
Mrs. Cleveland applied her hand vigorously to a bell-pull communicating with her husband's dressing room.
He made his presence in a splendid robe de chambre and a Turkish cap with a gold tassel.
"This woman," said his better half, "says you owe her a thousand dollars."
"Monsieur cannot deny it," said the French woman, fixing her keen black eyes on the thunder-struck Cleveland.