livious of aught else, his brows knotted in
distress, his face afire with love and sympathy. He made a step forward;
I thought him about to catch her in his arms, when he recollected
himself and dropped on his knees to grope for the fallen trinket.

"You wanted me, madame?" she asked Mme. de Mayenne.

"No," said the duchess, with a tartness of voice she seemed to reserve
for Mlle. de Montluc; "'twas Mme. de Montpensier."

"It was I," the fair-haired beauty answered in the same breath. "I want
you to stop moping over there in the corner. Come look at these baubles
and see if they cannot bring a sparkle to your eye. Fie, Lorance! The
having too many lovers is nothing to cry about. It is an affliction many
and many a lady would give her ears to undergo."

"Take heart o' grace, Lorance!" cried Mlle. de Tavanne. "If you go on
looking as you look to-day, you'll not long be troubled by lovers."

She made no answer to either, but stood there passively till it might be
their pleasure to have done with her, with a patient weariness that it
wrung the heart to see.

"Here's a chain would become you vastly, Lorance," Mme. de Montpensier
went on, friendlily enough, in her brisk and careless voice. "Let me try
it on your neck. You can easily coax Paul or some one to buy it for
you."

She fumbled over the clasp. M. Etienne, with a "Permit me, madame," took
it boldly from her hand and hooked it himself about mademoiselle's neck.
He delayed longer than he need over the fastening of it, looking with
burning intentness straight into her face. She lifted her eyes to his
with a quick frown of displeasure, drawing herself back; then all at
once the colour waved across her face like the dawn flush over a gray
sky. She blushed to her very hair, to her very ruff. Then the red
vanished as quickly as it had come; she clutched at her bosom, on the
verge of a swoon.

He threw out his arms to catch her. Instantly she stepped aside, and,
turning with a little unsteady laugh to the lady at whose elbow she
found herself, asked:

"Does it become me, madame?"

The little scene had passed so quickly that it seemed none had marked
it. Mademoiselle had stood a little out of the group, monsieur with his
back to it, and the ladies were busy over the jewels. She whom
mademoiselle had addressed, a big-nosed, loud-voiced lady, older than
any of the others, answered her bluntly:

"You look a shade too green-faced to-day, mademoiselle, for anything to