"
"Fate," put in Mathilde in her composed voice and manner, "has come
to Dantzig to-day."
"Ah!"
"Yes. You are the second unexpected arrival this afternoon."
D'Arragon turned and looked at Mathilde. His manner, always grave
and attentive, was that of a reader who has found an interesting
book on a dusty shelf.
"Has the Emperor come?" he asked.
Mathilde nodded.
"I thought I saw something in Charles's face," he said reflectively,
looking back through the open door towards the stairs where Charles
had nodded farewell to them. "So the Emperor is here, in Dantzig?"
He turned towards Sebastian, who stood with a stony face.
"Which means war," he said.
"It always means war," replied Sebastian in a tired voice. "Is he
again going to prove himself stronger than any?"
"Some day he will make a mistake," said D'Arragon cheerfully. "And
then will come the day of reckoning."
"Ah!" said Sebastian, with a shake of the head that seemed to
indicate an account so one-sided that none could ever liquidate it.
"You are young, monsieur. You are full of hope."
"I am not young--I am thirty-one--but I am, as you say, full of
hope. I look to that day, Monsieur Sebastian."
"And in the mean time?" suggested the man who seemed but a shadow of
someone standing apart and far away from the affairs of daily life
"In the mean time one must play one's part," returned D'Arragon,
with his almost inaudible laugh, "whatever it may be.
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