"Delicious! You were never more charming, Marquise; go on." "When he saw Madame Blanc placidly knitting under the trees, while I spread her fan to dry, he fancied I was in her service; the fancy was given color by the fact that my companion, as usual, was dressed with extreme elegance, whilst I was insignificant in an old school habit." "Insignificant--um! There was conversation I presume?" "Not much," she confessed, and again the delicious wave of color swept over her face, "but he had suggested spreading the fan on his handkerchief, and of course then he had to remain until it was dry." "Clever Englishman; and as he supposed you to be a paid companion, was he, also, some gentleman's gentleman?" She flashed one mutinous glance at him. "The jest seemed to me amusing; his presence was an exhilaration; and I did not correct his little mistake as to mistress and maid. When he attempted to tell me who or what he was I stopped him; that would have spoiled the adventure. I know he had just come from England; that he was fascinating without being strictly handsome; that he could say through silence the most eloquent things to one! It was an hour in Arcady--just one hour without past or future. They are the only absolutely joyous ones, are they not?" "Item: it was the happiest hour in the life of Madame La Marquise," commented Dumaresque, with an attempt at drollery, and an accompaniment of a sigh. "Well--the finale?" "The hour ended! I said 'good day, Monsieur Incognito.' He said, 'good night, Mademoiselle Unknown.'" "Good night! Heavens--it was not then an hour, but a day!" "It was an hour, Monsieur! That was only one way of conveying his belief that all the day was in that hour." "Blessed be the teachings of the convent! And you would have me believe that an Englishman could make such speeches? However, I am eager for the finale--the next day?" "The next day I surprised Monsieur and Madame Blanc by declaring the sketch I was doing of the woods there, was hopelessly bad--I would never complete it." "Ah!" and Dumaresque's exclamation had a note of hope; "he had been a bore after all?" "The farthest thing possible from it! When I woke in the morning it was an hour earlier than usual. I found myself with my eyes scarcely open, standing before the clock to reckon every instant of time until I should see him again. Well, from that moment my adventure ceased to be merely amusing. I told myself how many kinds of an idiot I was, and I thrust my head among the pillows again. I realized then, Monsieur, what a girl's first romance means to her. I laughed at myself, of course, as I had laughed at others often. But I could not laugh down the certainty that the skies were bluer, the birds' songs sweeter, and all life more lovely than it had ever been before." "And by what professions, or what mystic rhymes or runes, did he bring about this enchantment?"