"Ah!" François darted forward. "_La voilà!_ What did I say?" He clasped the box to his breast. "What did I say?" "But it is not so!" cried Jacques. "What did you say? You said you had not seen the box! What did _I_ say? I said--" "Enough!" commanded Philip. "I will not endure this bickering! Be quiet, François! Little monkey that you are!" "_M'sieur!_" François was hurt. His sharp little face fell into lines of misery. "Little monkey," continued Philip inexorably, "with more thought for your chattering than for my welfare." "Ah, no, no, m'sieur! I swear it is not so! By the--" "I do not want your oaths," said Philip cruelly. "Am I to wait all night for my cravat, while you revile the good Jacques?" François cast the box from him. "Ah, _misérable_! The cravat! _Malheureux_, get thee gone!" He waved agitated hands at Jacques. "You hinder me! You retard me! You upset Monsieur! _Va-t-en!_" Jacques obeyed meekly, and Philip turned back to the mirror. To him came François, wreathed once more in smiles. "He means well, _ce bon Jacques_," he said, busy with the cravat. "But he is _sot_, you understand, _très sot_!" He pushed Philip's chin up with a gentle hand. "He annoys m'sieur, _ah oui_! But he is a good _garçon_, when all is said." "It is you who annoy me," answered Philip. "Not so tight, not so tight! Do you wish to choke me?" "_Pardon_, m'sieur! No, it is not François who annoys you! _Ah, mille fois non!_ François--perhaps he is a little monkey, if m'sieur says so, but he is a very good valet, _n'est-ce pas_? A monkey, if m'sieur pleases, but very clever with a cravat. M'sieur has said it himself." "You are a child," said Philip. "Yes, that is very fair." He studied his reflection. "I am pleased with it." "Aha!" François clasped his hands delightedly. "M'sieur is no longer enraged! _Voyons_, I go to fetch the vest of m'sieur!" Presently, kneeling before his master and adjusting his stockings, he volunteered another piece of information. "Me, I have been in this country before. I understand well the ways of it. I understand the English, oh, _de part en part_! I know them for a foolish race, _en somme_--saving always m'sieur, who is more French than English--but never, never have I had the misfortune to meet so terrible an Englishman as this servant of m'sieur's uncle, this Moggat. _Si entêté, si impoli!_ He looks on me with a suspicion! I cannot tell m'sieur of his so churlish demeanour! He thinks, perhaps, that I go to take his fine coat. Bah! I spit upon it! I speak to him as m'sieur has bid me--_très doucement_. He pretends he cannot understand what it is I say! Me, who speak English _aussi bien que le Français_! Deign to enter into these shoes, m'sieur! I tell him I hold him in contempt! He makes a _reniflement_ in his nose, and he mutters 'damned leetle frog-eater!' _Grand Dieu_, I could have boxed his ears, the impudent!" "I hope you did not?" said Philip anxiously.