Her forehead was puckered in little lines of perplexity, as if she were puzzling out some problem; and there was a look of something very like fear in her gentle eyes.
"Wasn't Relzieres a great friend of your fiance at one time ?" said Jeanne.
"A great friend?
I should think he was," said Germaine.

"Why, it was through Relzieres that we got to know Jacques." "Where was that ?" said Marie.
"Here--in this very chateau," said Germaine.
"Actually in his own house ?" said Marie, in some surprise.
"Yes; actually here.

Isn't life funny ?" said Germaine.

"If, a few months after his father's death, Jacques had not found himself hard-up, and obliged to dispose of this chateau, to raise the money for his expedition to the South Pole; and if papa and I had not wanted an historic chateau; and lastly, if papa had not suffered from rheumatism, I should not be calling myself in a month from now the Duchess of Charmerace." "Now what on earth has your father's rheumatism got to do with your being Duchess of Charmerace ?" cried Jeanne.
"Everything," said Germaine.

"Papa was afraid that this chateau was damp.