If he stayed for six months, there
seemed no likelihood that at the end of that time he would be one whit
wiser on the one point on which he thirsted for information than he was
now. Still, he was glad for various reasons to retain his pleasant
quarters a little while longer.
Truth to tell, in Captain Ducie M. Platzoff had found a guest so much
to his liking that he could not make up his mind to let him go again.
Ducie was incurious, or appeared to be so; he saw and heard, and asked
no questions. He seemed to be absolutely destitute of political
principles, and therein he formed a pleasant contrast both to M.
Platzoff himself and to the swarm of foreign gentlemen who at different
times found their way to Bon Repos. He was at once a good listener and a
good talker. In fine, he made in every way so agreeable, and was at the
same time so thorough a gentleman that Platzoff was as glad to retain
him as he himself was pleased to stay.
Three out of the Captain's second term of six weeks had nearly come to
an end when on a certain evening, as he and Platzoff sat together in the
smoke-room, the latter broached a subject which Ducie would have wagered
all he possessed--though that was little enough--that his host would
have been the last man in the world even to hint at.
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