She was a little flushed, with strange eyes, ardent and timid, less daring than a moment before, troubled eyes, blue, yet with a pupil so black that they seemed hardly natural. Servigny appeared giddy. He leaned against a door to regain his composure. "You have no head, my poor Muscade, I am steadier than you," said Yvette to Servigny. He smiled nervously, and devoured her with a look. His animal feelings revealed themselves in his eyes and in the curl of his lips. She stood beside him looking down, and her bosom rose and fell in short gasps as he looked at her. Then she said softly: "Really, there are times when you are like a tiger about to spring upon his prey. Come, give me your arm, and let us find your friend." Silently he offered her his arm and they went down the long drawing-room together. Saval was not alone, for the Marquise Obardi had rejoined him. She conversed with him on ordinary and fashionable subjects with a seductiveness in her tones which intoxicated him. And, looking at her with his mental eye, it seemed to him that her lips, uttered words far different from those which they formed. When she saw Servigny her face immediately lighted up, and turning toward him she said: "You know, my dear Duke, that I have just leased a villa at Bougival for two months, and I count upon your coming to see me there, and upon your friend also. Listen. We take possession next Monday, and shall expect both of you to dinner the following Saturday. We shall keep you over Sunday." Perfectly serene and tranquil Yvette smiled, saying with a decision which swept away hesitation on his part: "Of course Muscade will come to dinner on Saturday. We have only to ask him, for he and I intend to commit a lot of follies in the country." He thought he divined the birth of a promise in her smile, and in her voice he heard what he thought was invitation. Then the Marquise turned her big, black eyes upon Saval: "And you will, of course, come, Baron?" With a smile that forbade doubt, he bent toward her, saying, "I shall be only too charmed, Madame." Then Yvette murmured with malice that was either naive or traitorous: "We will set all the world by the ears down there, won't we, Muscade, and make my regiment of admirers fairly mad." And with a look, she pointed out a group of men who were looking at them from a little distance. Said Servigny to her: "As many follies as YOU may please, Mam'zelle." In speaking to Yvette, Servigny never used the word "Mademoiselle," by reason of his close and long intimacy with her. Then Saval asked: "Why does Mademoiselle always call my friend Servigny 'Muscade'?" Yvette assumed a very frank air and said: "I will tell you: It is because he always slips through my hands. Now I think I have him, and then I find I have not." The Marquise, with her eyes upon Saval, arid evidently preoccupied, said in a careless tone: "You children are very funny."