Yvette regained all her gaiety: "'Teardrop'? Why he weeps like a
Magdalene. He goes to all the first-class funerals. I imagine myself
dead every time he looks at me."

"That settles the third. So the lightning will strike Baron Saval,
here."

"Monsieur the Colossus of Rhodes, Junior? No. He is too strong. It
would seem to me as if I were in love with the triumphal arch of
L'Etoile."

"Then Mam'zelle, it is beyond doubt that you are in love with me,
for I am the only one of your adorers of whom we have not yet
spoken. I left myself for the last through modesty and through
discretion. It remains for me to thank you."

She replied with happy grace: "In love with you, Muscade? Ah! no. I
like you, but I don't love you. Wait--I--I don't want to discourage
you. I don't love you--yet. You have a chance--perhaps. Persevere,
Muscade, be devoted, ardent, submissive, full of little attentions
and considerations, docile to my slightest caprices, ready for
anything to please me, and we shall see--later."

"But, Mam'zelle, I would rather furnish all you demand afterward
than beforehand, if it be the same to you."

She asked with an artless air: "After what, Muscade?"

"After you have shown me that you love me, by Jove!"