"For what time?"

"Nine o'clock, when we have dined."

"We are to get there in the dark, then?"

"What reason is there against that?" he asked, smiling.

"None," said I; and I went to pack up my bag.

In my room I chanced to find a _femme-de-chambre_. To her I put a question
or two as to the gentry of the neighborhood. She rattled me off a few
distinguished names, and ended:

"The duke of Saint-Maclou has also a small _château_."

"Is he there now?" I asked.

"The duchess only, sir," she answered. "Ah, they tell wonderful stories of
her!"

"Do they? Pray, of what kind?"

"Oh, not to her harm, sir; or, at least, not exactly, though to simple
country-folk--"

The national shrug was an appropriate ending.

"And the duke?"