This was his regular procedure. Why did he say it? They never could guess. He knew that the women, all three, understood French--Mrs. Bracher and Scotch speaking it fluently, Hilda, as became an American, haltingly. Did he not carry on most of his converse with them in French--always, when eloquent or sentimental? But unfailingly he used his formula, when he was highly pleased. They decided he must once have known some fair foreigner who could only faintly stammer in his native tongue, and that the habit of address had then become fixed upon him for moments of emotion. He repeated his question. "Oui," responded the girl. He kissed his fingers lightly to her, and waved the tribute in her direction, as if it could be wafted across the room. "Chere artiste," said he, with a voice of conviction. "And now the bacarolle," he pleaded. "There are many bacarolles," she objected. "I know, I know," he said, "and yet, after all, there is only one bacarolle." "All right," she answered, obediently, and played on. The music died away, and the girl in her fought against the response that she knew was coming. She began turning over sheets of music on the rack. But the Commandant was not to be balked. "Parlez-vous francais?" he inquired, "vous, Mademoiselle Hilda." "Oui, mon Commandant," she answered. "Chere artiste," he said; "chere artiste." "Ah, those two voices," he went on with a sigh; "they go with you, wherever you are. It is music, that night of love and joy. And here we sit--" "Yes, yes," interrupted Mrs. Bracher, who did not care to have an evening of gaiety sag to melancholy; "how about a little Cesar Franck?" "Yes, surely," agreed the Commandant, cheerily; "our own composer, you know, though we never gave him his due." Hilda ran through the opening of the D Minor. "Now it is your turn," said she. "My fingers are something stiff, with these cold nights by the window," replied the Commandant, "but certainly I will endeavor to play." He seated himself at the instrument. "Chere artiste," he murmured to the girl, who was retreating to the lounge.