this strange habitation laughed mirthfully at the complete
confusion of her visitor and would-be lover.

"Paint me now!" she said, flinging herself in a picturesque
attitude on one of the sofas close by; "I am ready."

"But _I_ am not ready!" retorted Gervase, angrily. "Do you take me
for a child, or a fool?"

"Both in one," responded the Princess, tranquilly; "being a man!"

His breath came and went quickly.

"Take care, beautiful Ziska!" he said. "Take care how you defy
me!"

"And take care, Monsieur Gervase; take care how you defy ME!" she
responded, with a strange, quick glance at him. "Do you not
realize what folly you are talking? You are making love to me in
the fashion of a brigand, rather than a nineteenth-century
Frenchman of good standing,--and I--I have to defend myself
against you also brigand-wise, by showing you that I have armed
servants within call! It is very strange,--it would frighten even
Lady Fulkeward, and I think she is not easily frightened. Pray
commence your work, and leave such an out-of-date matter as love
to dreamers and pretty sentimentalists, like Miss Helen Murray."

He was silent, and busied himself in unstrapping his canvas and
paint-box with a great deal of almost vicious energy. In a few
moments he had gained sufficient composure to look full at her,