wished!

Jacques was called. She said to him:

"Come here, little comrade." Jacques came. "Look at me," she added.
She fixed her eyes on him, and smiled. She was in the soft flare of the
lights.

"Well," she said after a moment, "what do you think of me?"

Jacques was confused. "Madame is beautiful."

"The eyes?" she urged.

"I have been to Gaspe, and west to Esquimault, and in England, but I
have never seen such as those," he said. Race and primitive man spoke
there.

She laughed. "Come closer, little man."

He did so. She suddenly rose, dropped her hands on his shoulders, and
kissed his cheek.

"Now bring the horse, and I will kiss him too."

Did she think she could rouse Gaston by kissing his servant? Yet it did
not disgust him. He knew it was a bit of acting, and it was well done.
Besides, Jacques Brillon was not a mere servant, and he, too, had done
well. She sat back and laughed lightly when Jacques was gone. Then she
said: "The honest fellow!" and hummed an air:

"'The pretty coquette
Well she needs to be wise,
Though she strike to the heart
By a glance of her eyes.

"'For the daintiest bird
Is the sport of the storm,
And the rose fadeth most
When the bosom is warm.'"

In twenty minutes the gate of the garden opened, and Jacques appeared
with Saracen. The horse's black skin glistened in the lights, and he
tossed his head and champed his bit. Gaston rose. Mademoiselle Cerise
sprang to her feet and ran forward. Jacques put out his hand to stop
her, and Gaston caught her shoulder. "He's wicked with strangers,"
Gaston said. "Chat!" she rejoined, stepped quickly to the horse's
head and, laughing, put out her hand to stroke him. Jacques caught the
beast's nose, and stopped a lunge of the great white teeth.

"Enough, madame, he will kill you!"

"Yet I am beautiful--is it not so?"

"The poor beast is ver' blind."

"A pretty compliment," she rejoined, yet angry at the beast.

Gaston came, took the animal's head in his hands, and whispered. Saracen
became tranquil. Gaston beckoned to Mademoiselle Cerise. She came. He
took her hand in his and put it at the horse's lips. The horse whinnied
angrily at first, but permitted a caress from the actress's fingers.

"He does not make friends easily," said Gaston. "Nor does his master."

Her eyes lifted to his, the lids drooping suggestively. "But when the
pact is made--!"