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When the song was done he felt his Jean was calling to him irresistible, and he suggested that they had better join the ladies. They rose some of them reluctantly from the bottles, Elchies strewing his front again with snuff to check his hiccoughs. MacTaggart, in an aside to the Duke, pleaded to be excused for his withdrawal immediately, as he felt indisposed.
That MacTaggart should have brought upon himself a tardy retribution for acts more bold than scrupulous was not to be wondered at; that the meeting with Count Victor was honourably conducted, although defective in its form, was almost certain; but here the assailant was in his custody, and whether he liked it or not he must hand him over to the law.
"Here's a multitude of counsellors, a great deal of the world's wisdom so far as it has been reduced to print, and I'll swear I could go through it from end to end without learning how I should judge a problem like Sim MacTaggart." She would have left him then, but he stopped her with a smiling interrogation. "Well?" he said. She waited. "What about the customary privilege?" he went on.
"Your Grace has travelled before now as Baron Hay," said the Chamberlain. "True! true! and saved very little either in inn charges or in the pother of State by the device. And if I remember correctly, I made no pretence at wine-selling on these occasions. Honestly now, what the devil does the Comte de Montaiglon do here and with Sim MacTaggart?" "The matter is capable of the easiest explanation.
The Chamberlain nodded. Mrs. Petullo's fingers rushed the life out of her knitting. "If I thought if I thought!" she said, leaving the sentence unfinished. No more was necessary; Sim MacTaggart thanked heaven he was not mated irrevocably. "Is it true?" she asked. "Is it true of you, Sim, who did your best to make me push Petullo to Doom's ruin?"
"For what did Simon MacTaggart harass our household?" "I have been bold enough to flatter myself; I had dared to think " She stopped him quickly, blushing. "You know he was Drimdarroch, Count Victor," said she, with some conviction. He jumped to his feet and bent to stare at her, his face all wrought with astonishment. "Mon Dieu! Mademoiselle, you do not say the two were one?
It was only for a moment the difficulties of the situation mastered him. "I have permitted myself, monsieur, to intrude upon you upon an excuse that must seem scandalously inadequate," said he. "My name is Montaiglon " "With the particle, I think?" said Sim MacTaggart. Count Victor started slightly.
MacTaggart turned about impatiently, poked with his riding crop at the fire, and plainly indicated that he was not in the mood for badinage. "All that has nothing to do with my Frenchman, your Grace," said he bluntly. "Oh, confound your Frenchman!" retorted the Duke, coming over, turning up the skirts of his coat, and warming himself at the fire.
Petullo, flushed a little to her great becoming in spite of a curl-paper or two, and clad in a lilac-coloured negligee of the charmingest, came into the office with a well-acted start of surprise to find a client there. "Oh, good morning! Mr. MacTaggart," she exclaimed, radiantly, while her husband scowled to himself, as he relapsed into the chair at his desk and fumbled with his papers.
Yon person was an even blacker villain than I guessed." "Oh!" she said, apparently much relieved, "and is that your secret? I have no wonder left in me for any new display of wickedness from Simon MacTaggart." "Listen," he said, and read her the damnatory document. She flushed, she trembled, she well-nigh wept with shame; but "Oh!" she cried at the end, "is he not the noble man?"
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