While the marquis and Adamas exchanged these reflections, the Moorish woman had made her preparations for singing, and Lucilio had arrived to listen to her. The marquis was so pleased with her manner that he begged Lucilio to write down the airs she sung. Lucilio was even more captivated by them, as being, he said, "very old and rare, of great beauty and perfect in their way." [Illustration: _MERCEDES AND MARIO ENTERTAIN THE MARQUIS._ _Mercedes sang better and better as they encouraged her, and Mario played her accompaniments very well._] Mercedes sang better and better as they encouraged her, and Mario played her accompaniments very well. He was so fascinating with his long guitar, his wise expression, his lips half-parted and his beautiful hair falling in waves over his shoulders, that one could never weary of looking at him. His costume, which consisted of a coarse white shirt, and brown woollen knee-breeches, with a red girdle and gray stockings with strips of red cloth wound around the legs, heightened the grace of his movements and the elegance of his shapely figure. He received with joyous bewilderment the toys which were brought from the garret, and the marquis was gratified to see that, after an admiring scrutiny of all those marvellous things, he arranged them in a corner with a sort of respect. The fact was that they did not appeal to him very strongly, and that, when his surprise had passed, his thoughts returned to Fleurial, who was alive, playful and affectionate, and would have followed him in his wandering life, whereas the possession of horses, cannon and citadels was only the dream of an instant in that life of want and constant motion. The rest of the day passed with no new outbreak on the part of Monsieur d'Alvimar. He saw Monsieur Poulain again and told him that he had decided to lay siege to the fair Lauriane. At supper he did his best to avoid having in the person of the marquis an enemy or an obstacle in his intercourse with her, and he succeeded in creating a favorable impression. He did not encounter the Moor or the child, nor did he hear them mentioned, and he retired early to muse upon his projects. The marquis's whole retinue was overjoyed to keep Mario a few days; so Adamas announced. He had covers laid for the child and his mother at the second table, at which he himself ate, in the capacity of valet de chambre, with Master Jovelin, whom Bois-Doré purposely treated as an inferior, and with Bellinde the housekeeper and Clindor the page. The coachman and other servants ate at different hours and in a different place. Theirs was the third table.