"
"Of course. I will go at once - that is, as soon as I can. I can't
to-day, nor yet to-morrow. I am too busy here." He waved a hand
towards the inner room, whence proceeded the click-click of blades,
the quick moving of feet, and the voice of the instructor, Le Duc.
"Well, well, that is your own affair. You are busy. I leave you now.
Let us dine this evening at the Caf? de Foy. Kersain will be of the
party."
"A moment!" Andre-Louis' voice arrested him on the threshold. "Is
Mlle. de Kercadiou with her uncle?"
"How the devil should I know? Go and find out."
He was gone, and Andre-Louis stood there a moment deep in thought.
Then he turned and went back to resume with his pupil, the Vicomte
de Villeniort, the interrupted exposition of the demi-contre of
Danet, illustrating with a small-sword the advantages to be derived
from its adoption.
Thereafter he fenced with the Vicomte, who was perhaps the ablest
of his pupils at the time, and all the while his thoughts were on
the heights of Meudon, his mind casting up the lessons he had to
give that afternoon and on the morrow, and wondering which of these
he might postpone without deranging the academy.
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