The grapes might have been pretty well, but
the note was injudicious. There were three lines about the grapes, as
to which there was some special history, the vine having been brought
from the garden of some villa in which some ill-used queen had lived
and died; and then there was a postscript in one line to say that the
Duke would call on the following morning. I do not think that he had
meant to add this when he began his note; but then children, who want
the top brick, want it so badly, and cry for it so perversely!
Of course Madame Goesler was at home. But even then she had not made
up her mind. She had made up her mind only to this,--that he should
be made to speak plainly, and that she would take time for her reply.
Not even with such a gem as the Duke's coronet before her eyes, would
she jump at it. Where there was so much doubt, there need at least be
no impatience.
"You ran away the other day, Duke, because you could not resist the
charm of that little boy," she said, laughing.
"He is a dear little boy,--but it was not that," he answered.
"Then what was it? Your niece carried you off in a whirl-wind. She
was come and gone, taking you with her, in half a minute."
"She had disturbed me when I was thinking of something," said the
Duke.
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