Presently his eyes were attracted by the beauty and brilliancy of a silver-gilt cup bearing the words "Given by _Madame_." Then he beheld before him, on a pedestal, a Sevres vase on which was engraved, "The gift of Madame la _Dauphine_." These mute admonitions brought Dumay to his senses while the valet went to ask his master if he would receive a person who had come from Havre expressly to see him,--a stranger named Dumay.
"What sort of a man ?" asked Canalis.
"He is well-dressed, and wears the ribbon of the Legion of honor." Canalis made a sign of assent, and the valet retreated, and then returned and announced, "Monsieur Dumay." When he heard himself announced, when he was actually in presence of Canalis, in a study as gorgeous as it was elegant, with his feet on a carpet far handsomer than any in the house of Mignon, and when he met the studied glance of the poet who was playing with the tassels of a sumptuous dressing-gown, Dumay was so completely taken aback that he allowed the great poet to have the first word.
"To what do I owe the honor of your visit, monsieur ?" "Monsieur," began Dumay, who remained standing.
"If you have a good deal to say," interrupted Canalis, "I must ask you to be seated." And Canalis himself plunged into an armchair a la Voltaire, crossed his legs, raised the upper one to the level of his eye and looked fixedly at Dumay, who became, to use his own martial slang, "bayonetted." "I am listening, monsieur," said the poet; "my time is precious,--the ministers are expecting me." "Monsieur," said Dumay, "I shall be brief.

You have seduced--how, I do not know--a young lady in Havre, young, beautiful, and rich; the last and only hope of two noble families; and I have come to ask your intentions." Canalis, who had been busy during the last three months with serious matters of his own, and was trying to get himself made commander of the Legion of honor and minister to a German court, had completely forgotten Modeste's letter." "I!" he exclaimed.
"You!" repeated Dumay.
"Monsieur," answered Canalis, smiling; "I know no more of what you are talking about than if you had said it in Hebrew.

I seduce a young girl! I, who--" and a superb smile crossed his features.

"Come, come, monsieur, I'm not such a child as to steal fruit over the hedges when I have orchards and gardens of my own where the finest peaches ripen.

All Paris knows where my affections are set.