"I might have told you," said I at Last, "but I did not myself know it until this morning."
"My faith, this country!" she exclaimed with genuine surprise. "What extraordinary things it does! I have just seen history made between the lightings of a cigarette, as it were. Now comes this man and announces that since midnight he has met and won the lady who is to rule his heart, and that he is to marry her at six!"
"Then congratulate me!" I demanded.
"Ah," she said, suddenly absorbed; "it was that tall girl! Yes, yes, I see, I see! I understand! So then! Yes!"
"But still you have not congratulated me."
"Ah, Monsieur," she answered lightly, "one woman never congratulates a man when he has won another! What of my own heart? Fie! Fie!" Yet she had curious color in her face.
"I do not credit myself with such fatal charms," said I. "Rather say what of my little clasp there. I promised that to the tall girl, as you know."
"And might I not wear it for an hour?"
"I shall give you a dozen better some time," said I; "but to-night—"
"And my slipper? I said I must have that back, because I can not hop along with but one shoe all my life."