"I have waited," Mario replied, in his soft voice--soft and caressing even in his mischief; "you told me to go away and come back. I went to the end of the next room, and now I have come back." "The little rascal!" said the marquis; "let him come in.--_Bonjour_, my young friend; just come to kiss me, then play quietly with Fleurial. I have some important business to discuss with good Monsieur Adamas. Come, Adamas, the day after to-morrow I am to entertain my incomparable neighbor. We must be preparing for it; a little informal dinner, fourteen courses at the most." "You shall have them, monsieur. Do you wish me to call the master-cook?" "No, I do not like to order my repasts, and, however clean and neat the kitchen people may be, they always smell of the kitchen. Help me to plan----" "What knife is that?" said Mario, very earnestly, as the marquis, always good-humored and momentarily preoccupied, held him between his legs and allowed him to ransack his pockets. "Nothing, nothing," said the marquis, trying to recover the pledge that Lauriane had given him. "Give it back to me, my boy; children must not touch such things. They bite, you see! Give it to me!" "Yes, yes, here it is!" said Mario; "but I saw what was written on it, and I know whose it is." "You don't know what you are saying!" "Yes, I do; I say that it belongs to the Spanish gentleman you call Villareal. Did he give it to you?" "Come, come, what is this you are muttering? You are dreaming!" "No, kind monsieur! I saw the device on the blade. It is in Spanish, and I know it very well; my mother Mercedes has one just like it, with the same device." "What does the device mean?" "_I serve God_.--_S. A._" "What does S. A. mean?" "They must be the initials of the man who owns the dagger. That is where they are usually put, in open work, near the hilt." "I know that; but why do you say that this dagger belongs to the Spanish gentleman named Villareal?" The child made no reply and seemed embarrassed. He was no longer under the Moorish woman's watchful and suspicious eye. He had said more than he ought, and he remembered her injunctions too late. "_Mon Dieu_! monsieur," said Adamas, "children talk sometimes for the sake of talking without knowing what they say. Let us go back to the important subject. Your keeper, Père Andoche, brought in to-day a string of birds so fat that----" "Yes, yes, you are right, my friend; let us arrange about the dinner. But, I don't know--I wonder how she had that Spanish dagger in the pocket of her skirt?" "Who, monsieur?" "Why, _she_, _parbleu_! Of whom else can I speak henceforth?" "To be sure; I beg pardon, monsieur! Let us talk about the dagger. I supposed that it was a gift from Monsieur de Villareal, or that he had lent it to you. For it is the truth that it comes from him. Those letters S. A. are on his other weapons, which are very handsome, and which I noticed this morning while his servant was polishing them."