THE BLACK ROBE
by Wilkie Collins
BEFORE THE STORY.
FIRST SCENE.
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER.--THE DUEL.
I.
THE doctors could do no more for the Dowager Lady Berrick.
When the medical advisers of a lady who has reached seventy years
of age recommend the mild climate of the South of France, they
mean in plain language that they have arrived at the end of their
resources. Her ladyship gave the mild climate a fair trial, and
then decided (as she herself expressed it) to "die at home."
Traveling slowly, she had reached Paris at the date when I last
heard of her. It was then the beginning of November. A week
later, I met with her nephew, Lewis Romayne, at the club.
"What brings you to London at this time of year?" I asked.
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