Whereupon Clyffurde made a violent effort to appear friendly and jovial too.
"Why," he said with a pleasant laugh, "what madcap ideas are floating through your head now?"
"Madcap schemes?" ejaculated de Marmont. "Nothing more or less, my dear Clyffurde, than complete revenge for the humiliation those de Cambrays put upon me last Sunday."
"Revenge? That sounds exciting," said Clyffurde with a smile, even while his palm itched to slap the young braggart's face.
"Exciting, _par Dieu!_ Of course it will be exciting. They have no idea that I guessed their little machinations. Mme. la Duchesse d'Agen travelling to Paris forsooth! Aye! but with five and twenty millions sewn somewhere inside her petticoats. Well! the Emperor happens to want his own five and twenty millions, if you please. So Mme. la Duchesse or M. le Comte will have to disgorge. And I shall have the pleasing task of _making_ them disgorge. What say you to that, friend Clyffurde?"
"That I am sorry for you," replied the other drily.
"Because it is never a pleasing task to bully a defenceless woman--and an old one at that."
De Marmont laughed aloud. "Bully Mme. la Duchesse d'Agen?" he exclaimed. "_Sacré tonnerre!_ what do you take me for. I shall not bully her. Fifty soldiers don't bully a defenceless woman. We shall treat Mme. la Duchesse with every consideration: we shall only remove five and twenty millions of stolen money from her carriage, that is all."
"You may be mistaken about the money, de Marmont. It may be anywhere except in the keeping of Mme. la Duchesse."
"It may be at the Château de Brestalou in the keeping of M. le Comte de Cambray: and this I shall find out first of all. But I must not stand gossiping any longer. I must see Colonel de la Bédoyère and get the men I want. What are your plans, my dear Clyffurde?"
"The same as before," replied Bobby quietly. "I shall leave Grenoble as soon as I can."
"Let the Emperor send you on a special mission to Lord Grenville, in London, to urge England to remain neutral in the coming struggle."
"I think not," said Clyffurde enigmatically.
De Marmont did not wait to ask him to what this brief remark had applied; he bade his friend a hasty farewell, then he turned on his heel, and gaily whistling the refrain of the "Marseillaise," stalked out of the hotel.