a stagnant pool, reluctantly. It seemed to be too tightly stretched for smiles.
"The car's four years old," he said joyfully. "He'll give me eight hundred for it, and it's not worth a pipe of tobacco. And eight hundred pounds is just the price of a little Watteau I've had my eye on for some time—a first-class investment."
They strolled down the terrace, and through one of the windows into the hall. Firmin had lighted the lamps, two of them. They made but a small oasis of light in a desert of dim hall. The millionaire let himself down very gingerly into an Empire chair, as if he feared, with excellent reason, that it might collapse under his weight.
"Well, my dear Duke," he said, "you don't ask me the result of my official lunch or what the minister said."
"Is there any news?" said the Duke carelessly.
"Yes. The decree will be signed to-morrow. You can consider yourself decorated. I hope you feel a happy man," said the millionaire, rubbing his fat hands together with prodigious satisfaction.
"Oh, charmed—charmed," said the Duke, with entire indifference.
