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It was Henri whose memory was first revived. "Captain, you are my prisoner!" he said, gayly, seizing the stranger by the collar. "What! The Commandant de Prerolles!" cried the elderly man, in a reproachful tone, from which fifteen years had not removed the bitterness. "I know who he is!" said Lenaieff. "Monsieur is your former jailer of the frontier fortress!"
"Well, and you, Captain," said Lenaieff: "Have you not also trodden the primrose path in your time?" "Gentlemen, I never have loved any other woman than my own wife," replied the honest German, laying his large hand upon his heart, as if he were taking an oath. "That astonishes you Parisians, eh?" he added benevolently. "Quite the contrary! It assures us peace of mind!" said Lenaieff.
"In that case I regret my complicity still less," said Lenaieff, "for otherwise I should have lost an excellent friend, and, had Prerolles been shot, he never could have made me acquainted with the delicious Mademoiselle de Vermont!" "Ah! So that is what you are thinking of?" Henri said to himself.
"We three, meeting in Paris, can prove the truth of that proverb." "Not only in Paris," said Lenaieff. "If you were in Saint Petersburg, Henri, you might, any evening, see your old flame, Fanny Dorville." "Does she keep a table d'hote?" "No, indeed, my boy. She plays duenna at the Theatre Michel, as that fat Heloise used to do at the Palais-Royal. She must have died long ago, that funny old girl!"
A quarter of an hour later all three were seated at a table in the Cafe Anglais. "I present to you General Lenaieff," said Henri to his guest. "You should be more incensed against him than against me, for, if he had done his duty, you would probably have had me imprisoned again." "Not imprisoned shot!" the Captain replied, with conviction.
"Well, and you, Captain," said Lenaieff: "Have you not also trodden the primrose path in your time?" "Gentlemen, I never have loved any other woman than my own wife," replied the honest German, laying his large hand upon his heart, as if he were taking an oath. "That astonishes you Parisians, eh?" he added benevolently. "Quite the contrary! It assures us peace of mind!" said Lenaieff.
"The young lady in the proscenium box, I will wager," said Lenaieff. "Precisely. I know that they call her Zibeline, but I did not catch her real name." "It is Mademoiselle de Vermont," said Edmond Delorme. "She is, in my opinion, the most dashing of all the Amazons in the Bois de Boulogne.
"I think you have the air of the commander of a division of cavalry, awaiting the moment to sound the charge." "I shall guard her well," said Zibeline, "for she would be sure to be put to rout by your bayonets." "Not by mine!" gallantly exclaimed Lenaieff. "I should immediately lower my arms before her!" "You! perhaps!
"And what did you do with the other man?" asked Lenaieff, laughing loudly. "I rid myself of him in the same way. At a sign from me, my maid announced the name of the father-in-law, and the alarmed son-in-law escaped by the same road! Oh, but I know them! They will come back!" "Because Mademoiselle de Vermont's million francs have destroyed their amorous designs."
"Mademoiselle Gontier has made a fixed resolution to avoid meeting me." "That is because she is jealous of you!" said Lenaieff naively. "Jealous? And why?" said Zibeline, blushing. Visibly embarrassed, Henri drew out his watch in order to avert his countenance. "Midday!" he cried. "This is the hour for the return of the troops to their barracks.
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