after it was decided that the duke would provide joe with a suitable costume for dinner, and that angeline would attempt to do the same for mary, the conversation began to flag until mademoiselle feval asked the duke,
“so what have you been up to, david? staying out of mischief, i hope?”
the duke sighed. “i wish i could say i have. however, i was mixed up in a spot of bother on my latest tour. “
“aren’t you getting a little old for that sort of thing?” mademoiselle asked. with a smile “i thought the whole point of your being sent on these excursions was to teach you to mind your manners among all sorts and conditions of persons, and thus be able to assume the responsibilities of your exalted position.”
“yes, but it never seems to work out. trouble seems to follow me, like a shadow. and besides, i do not see that i have such an exalted position, as you put it, as all that."
“your uncle seems to think so, and his is the opinion that counts, at least for now,” mademoiselle replied.
“but tell us, david,” angeline said. “what exactly was this ’spot of bother’? do not keep us in suspense. unless it was too sordid to recount in civilized company. or heaven forbid, that it involved
so-called ‘state security’.”
“oh, i would not go so far as to claim that,” said the duke, with a slightly uneasy laugh. “but, look here, let me tell you the tale, and you can decide as to its sordidness.”
“please do,” angeline encouraged him, with a glance at the other listeners.
“well, i was staying in a little town in the middle of nowhere, on the border of somewhere or other. i had been traveling by train, the way uncle wishes me to, as you know. i had met a fellow on the train in somewhat the same situation as my own, and he seemed a pleasant enough chap, though not overly bright. but i don’t care much for bright people and we got along all right. like i say, a pleasant enough chap, though he did not seem to hold his liquor very well.”
“but as i assume you were not consuming as much liquor as all that,” angeline interjected, “i do not suppose that presented much of a problem.”
“no, of course not.”
“did this amiable personage have a name?” angeline asked.
“gregor, his name was gregor. he was the heir to some sort of manufacturing fortune.”
“yes, people named gregor usually are,”
“anyway, gregor and i decided to stay for the night in this little town , in its little old-fashioned hostelry. and, wouldn’t you know it, there was some sort of festival going on, with all the townsfolk in some sort of strange costumes.”
“actually, i would not know it,” said angeline. “but please go on.”
“a festival?” asked mademoiselle feval, “it must have been a very out of the way place. i would have thought such things were completely obsolete.”
“oh, i think they only had it once a year,” said the duke. “i am sure they spent the rest of the year indoors watching television like the rest of the human race.”
“and you and your new friend just happened to come along on the one day of the year,” said angeline.
“indeed we did. do you want me to go on?”
“of course. i am sorry to keep interrupting. it is a bad habit of mine, one of many that poor mademoiselle has been hired to cure me of.”
“anyway,” the duke continued,” gregor and i went out into the town square just as the sun was going down, and it seemed that a young man and a young woman of the town had just been elected, or acclaimed, as the king and queen of the festival, and they were standing above the crowd on some kind of platform. ”
the duke paused , as if expecting some comment from angeline, but she only raised her eyebrows slightly, so he went on.
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