Two days later, as they met on the threshold of the Jockey Club, Charles-Edouard said to Maxime, “It is done.”

The words, which contained a drama accomplished in part by vengeance, made Maxime smile.

“Now come in and listen to Rochefide bemoaning himself; for you and Aurelie have both touched goal together.  Aurelie has just turned Arthur out of doors, and now it is our business to get him a home.  He must give Madame du Ronceret three hundred thousand francs and take back his wife; you and I must prove to him that Beatrix is superior to Aurelie.”

“We have ten days before us to do it in,” said Charles-Edouard, “and in all conscience that’s not too much.”

“What will you do when the shell bursts?”

“A man has always mind enough, give him time to collect it; I’m superb at that sort of preparation.”

The two conspirators entered the salon together, and found Rochefide aged by two years; he had not even put on his corset, his beard had sprouted, and all his elegance was gone.

“Well, my dear marquis?” said Maxime.

“Ah, my dear fellow, my life is wrecked.”

Arthur talked for ten minutes, and Maxime listened gravely, thinking all the while of his own marriage, which was now to take place within a week.

“My dear Arthur,” he replied at last; “I told you the only means I knew to keep Aurelie, but you wouldn’t—­”

“What was it?”

“Didn’t I advise you to go and sup with Antonia?”

“Yes, you did.  But how could I?  I love, and you, you only make love—­”

“Listen to me, Arthur; give Aurelie three hundred thousand francs for that little house, and I’ll promise to find some one to suit you better.  I’ll talk to you about it later, for there’s d’Ajuda making signs that he wants to speak to me.”

And Maxime left the inconsolable man for the representative of a family in need of consolation.

“My dear fellow,” said d’Ajuda in his ear, “the duchess is in despair.  Calyste is having his trunks packed secretly, and he has taken out a passport.  Sabine wants to follow them, surprise Beatrix, and maul her.  She is pregnant, and it takes the turn of murderous ideas; she has actually and openly bought pistols.”

“Tell the duchess that Madame de Rochefide will not leave Paris, but within a fortnight she will have left Calyste.  Now, d’Ajuda, shake hands.  Neither you nor I have ever said, or known, or done anything about this; we admire the chances of life, that’s all.”

“The duchess has already made me swear on the holy Gospels to hold my tongue.”

“Will you receive my wife a month hence?”

“With pleasure.”

“Then every one, all round, will be satisfied,” said Maxime.  “Only remind the duchess that she must make that journey to Italy with the du Guenics, and the sooner the better.”