But he recovered in a moment.
"Lady Cynthia being, however, in Switzerland, there is no reason why I should not go to Normandy." "Oh, Normandy ?" "Precisely.

It is there that the duchess--" "Oho! The duchess ?" "Is residing in retirement in a small _chteau_, alone save for my sister's society." "And a servant or two, I presume ?" "You are just right, a servant or two; for he is most stingy to her (though not, they say, to everybody), and gives her nothing when he is away." "Money is a temptation, you see." "_Mon Dieu_, to have none is a greater!" and Gustave shook his head solemnly.
"The duchess of what ?" I asked patiently.
"You will have heard of her," he said, with a proud smile.

Evidently he thought that the lady was a trump card.

"The Duchess of Saint-Maclou." I laid down my cigar, maintaining, however, a calm demeanor.
"Aha!" said Gustave.

"You will come, my friend ?" I could not deny that Gustave had a right to his little triumph; for a year ago, when the duchess had visited England with her husband, I had received an invitation to meet her at the Embassy.