"I will not go with you, Madame," cried little Margot. "This is not a school--it is a shop. I want to learn my French. I demand that I learn it. I will not again give counsel about hats for ugly women." "You will learn the tongue of the French so ravishing in those apartments set aside for _les robes_," cried Madame. "Come, my little Comtesse, you are a genius and must not throw away your gift." "I tell you I am _fatiguée_," cried Margot. "I will not enter a shop; I will go to school. It is a vow taken. Where is my grand'mère? See, I will do nothing more in your horrid shop." "_Ah, ma pauvre petite_," cried the good-natured Madame. "_La petite_, she is tired out and no wonder. Ah, _ma chérie_ is it not for your own _dot_? Now, come, listen. There is one playing in the other room. He is playing those delicious songs of _Wagnère_. Courage, _mon enfant_. You have done well and are tired. Ah, look at that robe in exquisite satin, coloured as the oyster, and that single row of pearls round the neck and that magnificent diamond star crowning the summit of _le chevelure_! See the air it lends. Will you not help me to sell that costume so ravishing, my little Comtesse?" "_Non, non_, I hate it all!" said Margot. "I will listen to the music of _Wagnère_ until my French mistress comes and then I will return to M'sieur le Comte St. Juste, _mon_ grandpère. Ah, but I am miserable--miserable in a shop. What would The Desmond say if he saw his pushkeen in a shop?" Madame saw that she had gone as far as she could with the little Comtesse. She placed her where she could listen to the beautiful music which delighted the child and soothed her troubled heart, and then a young Frenchman entered the _appartement_, and with his knees and heels tightly pressed together made a very low bow to the little Comtesse St. Juste. He began talking to her in a lively manner in the French tongue, correcting her mistakes and teaching her how to use the French language properly. Margot was a wonderfully quick little pupil, but she sprang up with delight when she saw the Comtesse enter. The Comtesse had an earnest conversation with Madame and approached Margot, her black eyes full of smiles and her cheeks very bright. "Ah, but thou art of the very best, _mon enfant_," she cried, and she took the little Comtesse in her arms and kissed her before everyone in the shop. The child and the woman got into the motor-car and drove off as quickly as possible in the direction of the château. "Thou must never do that again, grand'mère," cried Margot. "Do what, _ma petite_, my cabbage, my pigeon?" "That was a shop, not a school. I desire to go to a school," said Margot. "I will tell M'sieur le Comte, my French grandpère." "Thou wilt not, thou couldst not be so cruel," exclaimed her French grandmother. "Ah, but I could and I would. I will not learn in a shop."