I shall end by taking a dislike to you--I know I shall." "Wait till we're married for that, my dear girl," said the Duke; and he laughed again, with a blithe, boyish cheerfulness, which deepened the angry flush in Germaine's cheeks.
"Can't you be serious about anything ?" she cried.
"I am the most serious man in Europe," said the Duke.
Germaine went to the window and stared out of it sulkily.
The Duke walked up and down the hall, looking at the pictures of some of his ancestors--somewhat grotesque persons--with humorous appreciation.

Between addressing the envelopes Sonia kept glancing at him.

Once he caught her eye, and smiled at her.

Germaine's back was eloquent of her displeasure.

The Duke stopped at a gap in the line of pictures in which there hung a strip of old tapestry.
"I can never understand why you have left all these ancestors of mine staring from the walls and have taken away the quite admirable and interesting portrait of myself," he said carelessly.
Germaine turned sharply from the window; Sonia stopped in the middle of addressing an envelope; and both the girls stared at him in astonishment.
"There certainly was a portrait of me where that tapestry hangs.