"And I am your devoted slave, Madame Hesslein." The luring, mocking, maddening face of the lady lit up with fierce joy. She averted it quickly. "I will resume these titles so dignified," cried the chevalier, "I will return to my fatherland; ver' good, _mon ange_, you shall accompany, you shall be my wife. You shall rule over nine hundred vinedressers, and seven vineyards, _ma chère_; they are worth seventy thousand florins in the year; and you shall wear the gems of agate, of jasper--of diamonds as you wear this leetel ribbon--madame, all I have shall be yours." She heard with a cool smile, but a bitter pulse beat in her throat. "You are flattering, chevalier," she remarked, "and I shall think of it." He seized her fair hands, and pressed them to his lips, but she snatched them away with a flash from the smoldering fire in her eyes. "But first," said madame, with a keen glance, "you must assure me that the station you offer me is not gilded by imagination unassisted by gold." Monsieur sighed in heart-rending despondency. "Incomparable woman, you doubt what is to the Hungarian noblesse dearer than life--my honor. But come, I will give you my proofs." He escorted her to her state-room where waited the two maids of the charming lady, who always traveled with a complete retinue of servants, and going to his own cabin, presently he returned holding solemnly in his hands an elegantly silver-mounted coffer which he placed upon the table. Unlocking it, he drew from thence various parchments of official aspect, with huge seals appended, and displayed them to the smiling inamorata. "These are the rewards with which my country has honored my poor services," he said, with humility. "These papers attest to my right to wear these titles you have just heard, madame. _Voila!_ 'To the Count of Santo Spirito, Turin,' and 'To the Knight of the Order of Three Sicilys.' _Mon ange_, what more can I say?" A wicked smile was playing around her mouth. "I accept your statements, chevalier--and yourself!" she murmured, with an exquisite side glance. The little chevalier beamed with triumph, and bowed low over the lovely hand which she extended, and then she snatched it quickly from him, made a queenly obeisance, and vanished like a spirit from his sight. Madame Hesslein was seen no more until the steamer entered New York; she was either ill or coy; in reply to the chevalier's tender reproaches she declared for the first named, although her flashing eyes and healthy appearance emphatically contradicted the assertion. What a dream of joy tinctured with horrible doubts the succeeding month was for poor little Calembours! To-day she was amiable, gay, bewitching; to-morrow she would be locked in her room, and would send down a frantic entreaty to the good _fiance_ to leave her in peace; presently she would reward his importunities by flitting into his presence, white, vengeful, and torturing him with covert taunts and maddening allusions to his forgotten past.