"
"Ha--indeed, sir--well?"
"Well, madam, today I go to my father."
"Ah!" sighed the Duchess.
"Though indeed I thank you humbly for--your condescension."
"Hum!" said the Duchess.
"And honor you most sincerely for--for--"
"Oh?" said the Duchess, softly.
"And most truly love and reverence you for your womanliness."
"Oh!" said the Duchess again, this time very softly indeed, and with
her bright eyes more youthful than ever.
"Nevertheless," pursued Barnabas a little ponderously, "my father is
my father, and I count it more honorable to be his son than to live
an amateur gentleman and the friend of princes."
"Quite so," nodded the Duchess, "highly filial and very pious, oh,
indeed, most righteous and laudable, but--there remains an eighthly,
Barnabas."
"And pray, madam, what may that be?"
"What of Cleone?"
Now when the Duchess said this, Barnabas turned away to the window
and leaning his head in his hands, was silent awhile.
"Cleone!" he sighed at last, "ah, yes--Cleone!"
"You love her, I suppose?"
"So much--so very much that she shall never marry an innkeeper's son,
or a discredited--"
"Bah!" exclaimed the Duchess.
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