"
"It is a friendship that waits its time, monsieur," said D'Arragon
taking up his hat.
"Then you have a ship, monsieur, here in the Baltic?" asked Mathilde
with more haste than was characteristic of her usual utterance.
"A very small one, mademoiselle," he answered. "So small that I
could turn her round here in the Frauengasse."
"But she is fast?"
"The fastest in the Baltic, mademoiselle," he answered. "And that
is why I must take my leave--with the news you have told me."
He shook hands as he spoke, and bowed to Sebastian, whose generation
was content with the more formal salutation. Desiree went to the
door, and led the way downstairs.
"We have but one servant," she said, "who is busy."
On the doorstep he paused for a moment. And Desiree seemed to
expect him to do so.
"Charles and I have always been like brothers--you will remember
that always, will you not?"
"Yes," she answered with her gay nod. "I will remember."
"Then good-bye, mademoiselle."
"Madame," she corrected lightly.
"Madame, my cousin," he said, and departed smiling.
Desiree went slowly upstairs again.
CHAPTER IV. THE CLOUDED MOON.
Quand on se mefie on se trompe, quand on ne se mefie pas, on est
trompe.
Charles Darragon had come to Dantzig a year earlier. He was a
lieutenant in an infantry regiment, and he was twenty-five. Many of
his contemporaries were colonels in these days of quick promotion,
when men lived at such a rate that few of them lived long.
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