ee you."

Mme. de Saint-Euverte offered her own chair to the Princess, who
declined it with:

"Oh, please, no! Why should you? It doesn't matter in the least where
I sit." And deliberately picking out, so as the better to display the
simplicity of a really great lady, a low seat without a back: "There
now, that hassock, that's all I want. It will make me keep my back
straight. Oh! Good heavens, I'm making a noise again; they'll be telling
you to have me 'chucked out'."

Meanwhile, the pianist having doubled his speed, the emotion of the
music-lovers was reaching its climax, a servant was handing refreshments
about on a salver, and was making the spoons rattle, and, as on every
other 'party-night', Mme. de Saint-Euverte was making signs to him,
which he never saw, to leave the room. A recent bride, who had been told
that a young woman ought never to appear bored, was smiling vigorously,
trying to catch her hostess's eye so as to flash a token of her
gratitude for the other's having 'thought of her' in connection with so
delightful an entertainment. And yet, although she remained more calm
than Mme. de Franquetot, it was not without some uneasiness that she
followed the flying fingers; what alarmed her being not the pianist's
fate but the piano's, on which a lighted candle, jumping at each
_fortissimo_, threatened, if not to set its shade on fire, at least to
spill wax upon the ebony. At last she could contain herself no longer,
and, running up the two steps of the platform on which the piano stood,
flung herself on the candle to adjust its sconce. But scarcely had her
hand come within reach of it when, on a final chord, the piece finished,
and the pianist rose to his feet. Nevertheless the bold initiative shewn
by this young woman and the moment of blushing confusion between her
and the pianist which resulted from it, produced an impression that was
favourable on the whole.

"Did you see what that girl did just now, Princess?" asked General de
Froberville, who had come up to Mme. des Laumes as her hostess left her
for a moment. "Odd, wasn't it? Is she one of the performers?"

"No, she's a little Mme. de Cambremer," replied the Princess carelessly,
and then, with more animation: "I am only repeating what I heard just
now, myself; I haven't the faintest notion who said it, it was some one
behind me who said that they were neighbours of Mme. de Saint-Euverte in
the country, but I don't believe anyone knows them, really