playing with it."

Madelon looked up into Horace's face with her wide-open gaze,
as if to verify this wonderful assertion; and apparently
satisfied that it had been made for the sake of effect,
continued her game without making any reply.

"Oh, then, I really must take it away," said the Countess;
"_allons_, be reasonable, _ma petite;_ let me have that, and go
and dance with the other little boys and girls."

"But I don't want to dance, and I like to play at this," cries
Madelon with her shrill little voice, clutching the board with
both her small hands, as the Countess tried to get possession
of it; "you have no right to take it away. Papa lets me play
with it; and I don't care for you! Give it me back again, I
say; _je le veux, je le veux!_"

"No, no," answered the Countess, pushing it beyond Madelon's
reach to the other side of the table. "I daresay you have seen
your papa play at that game; but children must not always do
the same as their papas. Now, be good, and eat your bonbons
like a sensible child."

"I will not eat them if I may not play for them!" cried the
child; and with one sweep of her hand she sent them all off
the table on to the floor, and stamped on them again and again
with her tiny foot. "You have no right to speak to me so!" she
went on energetically; "no one but my papa speaks to me; and I
don't know you, and I don't like you, and you are very ugly!"
and then she turned her back on the Countess and stood in
dignified silence.

"_Mais c'est un petit diable!_" cried the astonished lady,
fanning herself vigorously with her pocket-handkerchief. She
was discomfited though she had won the victory, and hailed the
return of her partner with the _eau sucree_ as a relief. "A
thousand thanks, M. Jules! What if we take another turn,
though this room really is of insufferable heat."

Madelon was let confronting Horace, a most ill-used little
girl, not crying, but with flushed cheeks and pouting lips--a
little girl who had lost her game and her bonbons, and felt at
war with all the world in consequence. Horace was sorry for
her; he, too, thought she had been ill-used, and no sooner was
the Countess fairly off than he said, very immorally, no
doubt,

"Would you like to have your game back again?"

"No," said Madelon, in whom this speech roused a fresh sense
of injury; "I have no more bonbons."

Graham had none to offer her, and a silence ensued, during
which she stood leaning against the table,