There were bursts of laughter in the garden, a great noise of voices and of calls, the bustling gaiety of country house parties, and she recognized the sonorous tones of M. de Belvigne, singing: "I am underneath thy window, Oh, deign to show thy face." She rose, without reflecting, and looked out. They all applauded. They were all five there, with two gentlemen whom she did not know. She brusquely withdrew, annoyed by the thought that these men had come to amuse themselves at her mother's house, as at a public place. The bell sounded for breakfast. "I will show them how to die," she said. She went downstairs with a firm step, with something of the resolution of the Christian martyrs going into the circus, where the lions awaited them. She pressed their hands, smiling in an affable but rather haughty manner. Servigny asked her: "Are you less cross to-day, Mam'zelle?" She answered in a severe and peculiar tone: "Today, I am going to commit follies. I am in my Paris mood, look out!" Then turning toward Monsieur de Belvigne, she said: "You shall be my escort, my little Malmsey. I will take you all after breakfast to the fete at Marly." There was, in fact, a fete at Marly. They introduced the two newcomers to her, the Comte de Tamine and the Marquis de Briquetot. During the meal, she said nothing further, strengthening herself to be gay in the afternoon, so that no one should guess anything,--so that they should be all the more astonished, and should say: "Who would have thought it? She seemed so happy, so contented! What does take place in those heads?" She forced herself not to think of the evening, the chosen hour, when they should all be upon the terrace. She drank as much wine as she could stand, to nerve herself, and two little glasses of brandy, and she was flushed as she left the table, a little bewildered, heated in body and mind. It seemed to her that she was strengthened now, and resolved for everything. "Let us start!" she cried. She took Monsieur de Belvigne's arm and set the pace for the others. "Come, you shall form my battalion, Servigny. I choose you as sergeant; you will keep outside the ranks, on the right. You will make the foreign guard march in front--the two exotics, the Prince, and the Chevalier--and in the rear the two recruits who have enlisted to-day. Come!" They started. And Servigny began to imitate the trumpet, while the two newcomers made believe to beat the drum. Monsieur de Belvigne, a little confused, said in a low tone: "Mademoiselle Yvette, be reasonable, you will compromise yourself." She answered: "It is you whom I am compromising, Raisine. As for me, I don't care much about it. To-morrow it will not occur. So much the worse for you: you ought not to go out with girls like me."