should say."

Francezka's face dimpled into a rosy smile.

"It is the second time to-day that I have been called Madame Cheverny.
It is the charmingest name in the world, I think."

She continued, her face becoming grave:

"When Regnard was bowing before me, I saw the resemblance more than
ever--and I drank in his words, because his voice is so much like
Gaston's; yet, I do not see how any one could take one for the other.
Bold was with me--he never leaves me--and he annoyed me by snapping
and snarling at Regnard--no mistake on good Bold's part of any one for
his master! Regnard seated himself with me on this bench in the very
spot where Gaston had sat last autumn, and I was trying to lose myself
in dreaming that it was Gaston and not Regnard who was with me--when
something he said brought me to myself with a shock. For he--" She
stopped, and I said:

"He told you of his love. Tell me all, Madame."

Again I saw that girlish flash of pleasure pass across her anxious and
pleading eyes. Francezka had something undyingly childlike in her
composition.

"He told me of his love so quickly I could not stop him--but I was
indiscreet in one thing. When he told me he regarded my fortune as
less than nothing, I _did_ whisper into Bold's ear, loud enough for
Regnard to hear--'So say they all--except'--the exception I meant was
Gaston. He is the only suitor I have yet had, who did not assure me
that my fortune was nothing to him. Regnard overheard me--and I saw he
was angered. He would not be stopped, although I rose and put up my
hand, and turned my back. But at last, I said to him:

"'And your brother, Monsieur?' for, of course, Regnard knew that
Gaston loved me. When I said this, I turned my eyes full upon him,
because I wished to intimidate him. He colored a little, but said,
coolly: 'Madame, I am not wanting in brotherly affection, but in these
matters my brother and I are as man to man.'"

It was just what I had heard Gaston say, nearly seven years before.
Francezka resumed:

"Then I said to him, without the least tremor in the world, and
feeling myself thrilled with joy and pride at the telling--'Monsieur,
I am, and have been for nearly a year, the wife of your brother,
Gaston Cheverny.'"

Being a natural actress, Francezka went through this scene so that it
was as if it were all happening again. She rose as she spoke and
actually grew taller, and her voice, although low, had a ring of joy
and exultation in it w