The Immortal

u surprised at? I am sure you thought her twenty years younger. It's a fact, it seems, that the most experienced of you know nothing about women. Well, you see, the poor prince could not have her hanging on to him all his life. Besides, one of these days the old Duke will die, and then where would he be? Fancy him tied to that old woman!'

'Well,' said Paul, 'so much for your dear friend!' She fired at this. Her dear friend! The Duchess! A pretty friend! A woman who, with twenty-five thousand a year--intimate as she was with her, and well aware of their difficulties--had never so much as thought of helping them! What was the present of an occasional dress? Or the permission to choose a bonnet at her milliner's? Presents for use! There was no pleasure in them.

'Like grandpapa Réhu's on New Year's day,' put in Paul assenting. 'An atlas, or a globe!'

'Oh, Antonia is, I really think, more stingy still. When we were at Mousseaux, in the middle of the fruit season, if Sammy was n