"I agree," was the regretful answer. "If this treacherous scheme is
carried out I believe that France will be face to face with the greatest
crisis she has known in history. Even then I dare not suggest that we
court dishonor by breaking an alliance with a friend in distress."
"You are right, gentlemen," Monsieur Grisson said with a sigh. "We must
tell Lord Fothergill that our relations with his country must remain
unfettered. I----"
Again the telephone bell rang. Monsieur Grisson listened, and replied
with a sudden return to his old briskness of manner.
"It is young De Bergillac," he announced. "He has been in England in
search of that missing page of the treaty. I have told them to show him
in."
The Vicomte entered, paler than ever from recent travel, and deeply
humiliated from the fact that there was a smut upon his collar which he
had had no time to remove. He presented a paper to Monsieur Grisson and
bowed. The President spread it out upon the table, and the faces of the
three men as they read became a study. Monsieur Grisson rang the bell.
"Monsieur le Duc de Bergillac and a young English gentleman," he told
the attendant, "are in my private retiring-room.
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