"Mon ami," she murmured, in apology, "am I not to be frank with you? Would you have only the connubial confidences?"
"But I had no idea—" he began.
"Why, Gaston, it bored me to the very verge of yawning in my lover's countenance. I, too, had no idea but that it would bore you equally—"
"Hein?" said the Duke.
"—to hear what d'Humières—"
"He squints!" cried the Duc de Puysange.
"—or de Créquy—"
"That red-haired ape!" he muttered.
"—or d'Arlanges, or—or any of them, was pleased to say. In fact, it was my duty to conceal from my husband anything which might involve him in duels. Now that we are friends, of course it is entirely different."
The Duchess smiled; the Duke walked up and down the room with the contained ferocity of a caged tiger.