But after luncheon, when Madame was again in her room, Jack came to me with a nosegay he had gathered, to beg me to arrange it properly, and put a paper frill round it. With some grass and fern-leaves, I made a tasteful bouquet, and added a frill, to Jack's entire satisfaction. He took it up-stairs, and we heard him knock at Madame's door. After a pause ("I'm sure she's crying again!" said Eleanor) Madame came out, and a warm discussion began between them, of which we only heard fragments. Madame's voice, as the shrillest, was most audible, and it rose into distinctness as she exclaimed, "Anything sŏh dirrty, sŏh meean, sŏh folgaire, I nevaire saw." Again the discussion proceeded, and we only caught a few of Jack's arguments about "customs of the country," "for the fun of it," etc. "Fun?" said Madame. "For a joke," said Jack. "_Ah, c'est vrai_, for the choke," she said. "And _avec moi_," Jack continued. "There's French for you, Madame! Come along!" Madame laughed. "She'll go," said Eleanor. "_Eh bien!_" Madame cried gaily. "For the choke. _Avec vous, Monsieur Jack._ Ha! ha! _Allons!_ Come along!" "Link, Madame," said Jack, as they came down-stairs, Madame smarter than ever, and bouquet in hand. "Mais _link_? What is this?" said she. "Take my arm," said Jack. "I'll treat you to everything." "Mais _treat_? What is that?" said Madame, whose beaming good-humour only expanded the more when Jack explained that it was a pecuniary attention shown by rustic swains to their "young women." As Clement came into the hall he met Madame hanging on Jack's arm, and absolutely radiant. "You're not going into that beastly place again?" said he. "For the choke, Monsieur Clement. _Ah, oui!_ And with Monsieur Jack." "You may as well come, Clem," said Eleanor, and we followed, laughing. Madame had now no time for discontent. Jack held her fast. He gave her gingerbread at one stall, and gingerbeer at another, and cracked nuts for her all along. He vowed that the oyster-shells were flowers, and the empty bottles bouquet-holders, and offered to buy her a pair of spectacles to see matters more clearly with. "Couleur de rose?" laughed Madame. We went in a body to the marionettes, and Madame screamed as we climbed the inclined plane to enter, and scrambled down the frail scaffolding to the "reserved seats." These cost twopence a head, and were "reserved" for us alone. The dolls were really cleverly managed. They performed the closing scenes of a pantomime. The policeman came to pieces when clown and harlequin pulled at him. People threw their heads at each other, and shook their arms off. The transformation scene was really pretty, and it only added to the joke that the dirty old proprietor burned the red light under our very noses, amid a storm of chaff from Jack.