‘Mon petit,’ he said firmly, ‘it is ridiculous. It is unthinkable. Même, it is outrageous. It is against all custom. The Duke, he is not human. Some call him Satanas, and mon Dieu, they have reason!’
‘I have never seen Satan,’ answered Léon, from a large chair where he sat with his feet tucked under him. ‘But I do not think that Monseigneur is like him.’ He reflected. ‘But if he is like the devil no doubt I should like the devil very much. My brother says I am a child of the devil.’
‘That is shame!’ said fat Madame Dubois, the housekeeper, shocked.
‘Faith, he has the devil’s own temper!’ chuckled Gregory, a footman.
‘But listen to me, you!’ insisted Gaston. ‘M. le Duc is of a hardness! Ah, but who should know better than I? I tell you, moi qui vous parle, if he would but be enraged all would go well. If he would throw his mirror at my head I would say naught! That is a gentleman, a noble! But the Duc! Bah! He speaks softly – oh, so softly! – and his eyes they are al-most shut, while his voice – voilà, I shudder!’ He did shudder, but revived at the murmur of applause. ‘And you, petit ! When has he spoken to you as a boy? He speaks to you as his dog! Ah, but it is imbecile to admire such a man! It is not to be believed!’
‘I am his dog. He is kind to me, and I love him,’ said Léon firmly.
‘Kind! Madame, you hear?’ Gaston appealed to the housekeeper, who sighed, and folded her hands.
‘He is very young,’ she said.
‘Now I will tell you of a thing!’ Gaston exclaimed. ‘This Duc, what did he do, think you, three years ago? You see this hôtel? It is fine, it is costly! Eh bien! Me, I have served the Duke for six years, so you may know that I speak truth. Three years ago he was poor! There were debts and mortgages. Oh, we lived the same, bien sûr ; the Alastairs are always thus. We had always the same magnificence, but there were only debts behind the splendour. Me, I know. Then we go to Vienna. As ever the Duc he play for great stakes: that is the way of his house. At first he loses. You would not say he cared, for still he smiles. That too is his way. Then there comes a young nobleman, very rich, very joyous. He plays with the Duc. He loses; he suggests a higher stake; the Duc, he agrees. What would you? Still that young noble loses. On and on, until at last – pouf ! It is over! That fortune, it has changed hands. The young man, he is ruined – absolument ! The Duc, he goes away. He smiles – ah, that smile! The young man fights a duel with pistols a little later, and he fires wide, wide! Because he was ruined he chose Death! And the Duc’ – Gaston waved his hands – ‘he comes to Paris and buys this hôtel with that young noble’s fortune!’
‘Ah!’ sighed Madame, and shook her head.
Léon tilted his chin a little.
‘It is no such great matter. Monseigneur would always play fair. That young man was a fool. Voilà tout! ’
‘Mon Dieu, is it thus you speak of the wickedness? Ah, but I could tell of things! If you knew the women that the Duc has courted! If you knew –’
‘Monsieur!’ Madame Dubois raised protesting hands. ‘Before me?’
‘I ask pardon, madame. No, I say nothing. Nothing! But what I know!’
‘Some men,’ said Léon gravely, ‘are like that, I think. I have seen many.’
‘Fi donc! ’ Madame cried. ‘So young, too!’
Léon disregarded the interruption, and looked at Gaston with a worldly wisdom that sat quaintly on his young face.
‘And when I have seen these things I have thought that it is always the woman’s fault.’
‘Hear the child!’ exclaimed Madame. ‘What do you know, petit, at your age?’
Léon shrugged one shoulder, and bent again over his book.
‘Perhaps naught,’ he answered.
Gaston frowned upon him, and would have continued the discussion had not Gregory forestalled him.
‘Tell me, Léon, do you accompany the Duke to-night?’
‘I always go with him.’
‘Poor, poor child!’ Madame Dubois sighed gustily. ‘Indeed, it is not fitting.’
‘Why is it not fitting? I like to go.’
‘I doubt it not, mon enfant. But to take a child to Vassaud’s, and to Torquillier’s – voyons, it is not convenable !’
Léon’s eyes sparkled mischievously.
‘Last night I went with Monseigneur to the Maison Chourval,’ he said demurely.