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Updated: May 3, 2025
The police commissary, who was calmly looking at this little scene with the coolness of an amateur, prepared to verify the fact that they were caught flagrante delicto, and in an ironical voice said to her husband, who had claimed his services: "I must ask for your name in full, Monsieur?" "Charles Joseph Edward Dupontel," was the answer.
And presently I will tell you a reason why this is a day to be careful of." In the elevator that bore them toward the street, he began of a sudden to search his pockets. Dupontel, watching, him in surprise, saw a real worry replace the customary lofty impassivity of his face. "You have lost something?" he asked. "Yes," answered the Prince shortly.
"You could have let him off till next day," said Dupontel. The Prince shook his head. "In those times," he said, "it was not the custom to break one's engagements neither to break them nor to allow them to be broken." "I should like to see this Carigny of yours," said Dupontel thoughtfully. "When do you expect him to call on you?" "His letter says 'as soon as possible," answered the Prince.
"It was this I had left behind," he said, showing the thin-worn gold disc. "It is well, a talisman of mine, a sort of mascot. I was nearly going without it. Rather than do that I would stay at home." Dupontel laughed. "You are superstitious, then?" he said lightly. "It is not much to look at, your talisman." The Prince shook his head; it seemed impossible to make him smile that morning.
The men in the room, moving aside, made an avenue from the door to the window in which, the Prince stood. The Prince came along it to greet his guest. As they halted, face to face, Dupontel saw that the young stranger touched the elder on the arm. The Prince seemed to have doubts. He remembered Carigny as a slim youth; the stranger was burly, with a bush of beard and a red face.
Be quick." They were equals for the moment; the relationship was plain to both of them. With no failing of his countenance, the valet drew the missing, piece from his pocket. "Mexican?" he said. "I thought it was Spanish." The coins changed hands. Neither of them failed in his attitude; they were well matched. The Prince rejoined Dupontel with his Mexican gold piece still in his hand.
When he had taken his thirty-first mistress, and had made the discovery that in love, money does not create happiness two-thirds of the time, that they had all deceived him, and made him perfectly ridiculous at the end of the week, Charles Dupontel made up his mind to settle down as a respectable married man, and to marry, not from calculation or from reason, but for love.
The Prince's somber eyes passed unseeing over these articles of human furniture. "If only I don't get a sign," he said; "like going out without my Mexican coin, you know that would be a sign. If only I can avoid that and a couple of other things I'll be ready enough for Monsieur Carigny when he comes." "Tiens!" said Dupontel. "You and your signs, c'est epatant!"
He, in converse with a veteran who had known Carigny, took the card and held it in his fingers without looking at it while he finished what he was saying. All eyes were on him; it was a neat piece of social bravado. He glanced at the card at last. "Announce Monsieur Carigny," he said to the servant, and went on talking. Dupontel felt like cheering him. The talk resumed, in a changed key.
And now, this business of Carigny cropping up, rising like a ghost of the past to demand a reckoning!" He shuddered; it was like the shudder of a man who feels a sudden chill. "A reckoning!" he repeated. "At this rate, one is never quit of anything." They were nearing the restaurant at which they were to lunch. Dupontel touched his companion lightly on the arm. "You are depressed," he said.
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