res of the table, and think of the
humiliation and abasement of my grandfather----"

Fritz entered with the lamp, and asked if Freule had not rung for the
tea. The General and the Captain followed. The conversation languished
over the tea-table, and Francis became silent; when suddenly the
Captain exclaimed, pointing to her hair--

"Ah, the lioness shakes her mane to frighten us!"

"It's true," she answered coolly; "excuse me, gentlemen."

And away she went to her own room.

"It is curious how Francis has these attacks of nonchalance," muttered
the General.

"And just now, when we have a visitor whom she herself brought,"
assented the Captain.

But to change the subject the General proposed a game at cards.

CHAPTER XVII.

The Captain arranged the card-table, whilst Fritz removed the
tea-things. We took our seats, and the General, as I thought, fixed
the counters tolerably high.

The old man seemed to undergo a thorough change the moment he
held the cards in his hand. His dull, sleepy eyes brightened with
intelligence and sparkled with enthusiasm. Every limb moved; the tips
of his fingers trembled, and yet they still held the cards firmly
whilst he examined them to calculate, with mathematical precision,
what was wanting in ours. His pale cheeks flushed a deep red, his
nostrils expanded or contracted according to the chances of the game;
and the melancholy man, who usually sat with his head bowed down as
though overburdened, was of a sudden seized by a spirit of audacity,
of rashness, of foolhardiness, that not seldom gained him splendid
success, and reminded me of the saying, "Good luck is with the rash
man." It certainly is with the audacious player.

As for myself I made many blunders, which greatly amused my
companions. I had already lost a considerable sum, when the door
opened and Francis appeared in evening costume.

I threw down my cards on the table to offer her a chair. The General,
who sat with his back to the door, looked at me angrily, whilst the
Captain cried--

"Our Major in full dress."

"What strange whim is this?" growled the General, with difficulty
suppressing his anger, for he had an excellent hand of cards this
time. "The whole day you have gone about like a Cinderella, and
now----"

"The fairy has come, and I appear as a princess," replied Francis.

"And the famous glass slipper is not wanting," I said, admiring the
beautiful little slippers peeping out from und