"I am glad to hear it," she said, with a charming smile. "You are a stranger in Nîmes?" "I was. I do not feel so now." "Thank you," she answered, her eyes meeting mine without reserve. "That you may feel more at home, I am going presently to tell you my name. Yours I do not ask." "You do not know it?" I cried. "No," she said, laughing; and I saw, as she laughed, that she was younger than I had thought; that she was little more than a girl. "Of course, you can tell it me if you please," she added lightly. "Then, Madame, I do please," I answered gallantly. "I am the Vicomte de Saux, of Saux by Cahors, and am very much at your service." She held her hand suspended, and stared at me a moment in undisguised astonishment. I even thought that I read something like terror in her eyes. Then she said: "Of Saux by Cahors?" "Yes, Madame. And I am driven to fear," I continued, seeing the effect my words produced, "that I am here in the place of some one else." "Oh, no!" she said. Then, her feelings seeming to find sudden vent, she laughed and clapped her hands. "No, Monsieur," she cried gaily, "there is no error, I assure you. On the contrary, now I know who you are, I will give you a toast. Alphonse! Fill M. le Vicomte's glass, and then leave us! So! Now, M. le Vicomte," she continued, "you must drink with me, _à l'Anglaise_, to----" She paused and looked at me slily. "I am all attention, Madame," I said, bowing. "To _la belle_ Denise!" she said. It was my turn to start and stare now; in confusion as well as surprise. But she only laughed the more, and, clapping her hands with childish abandon, bade me, "Drink, Monsieur, drink!" I did so bravely, though I coloured under her eyes. "That is well," she said, as I set down the glass. "Now, Monsieur, I shall be able--in the proper quarter--to report you no recreant." "But, Madame," I said, "how do you know the proper quarter?" "How do I know?" she answered naïvely. "Ah, that is the question." But she did not answer it; though I remarked that from this moment she took a different tone with me. She dropped much of the reserve which she had hitherto maintained, and began to pour upon me a fire of wit and badinage, merriment and _plaisanterie_, against which I defended myself as well as I could, where all the advantage of knowledge lay with her. Such a duel with so fair an antagonist had its charms, the more as Denise and my relations to her formed the main objects of her raillery: yet I was not sorry when a clock, striking eight, produced a sudden silence and a change in her, as great as that which had preceded it. Her face grew almost sombre, she sighed, and sat looking gravely before her. I ventured to ask if anything ailed her. "Only this, Monsieur," she answered. "That I must now put you to the test; and you may fail me." "You wish me to do something?" "I wish you to give me your escort," she answered, "to a place and back again."