Page 50 (1/2)

The Hotel de Périgny stood in the Rue des Augustines, diagonally

opposite the historic pile once occupied by Henri II and Diane de

Poitiers, the beautiful and fascinating Duchesse de Valentinois of

equivocal yet enduring faht lines, and the stains of nearly two centuries had

discolored the blue-veined Italian h wall inclosed it,

and on the top of this wall ran a httiht, it took on the soe of a kill-joy The invisible hand of fear chilled and repelled

the curious: it was a house of dread There were no gardens; the

flooring of the entire court was of stone; there was not even the usual

vine sprawling over the walls

Men had died in this house; not always in bed, which is to say,

naturally Sorand salon, on the staircase leading to the upper stories In the

Valois's tiht; for men had held

life in a careless hand, and the iver Three of the House of Périgny had closed their accounts

thus roughly The grandsire and granduncle of the presentive law to

each other And the apple of discord, some say, had been the Duchesse

de Valentinois The third to die violently was the ninth marquis,

father of the present possessor of the title History says that he

died of too ue Thus it will be seen that

the blood in the veins of this noble race was red and hot

Children, in ht sober