"This was three years ago."
"I was loitering one day in the gallery of the Louvre, when she approached me, 'M. le Page,' said she, placing a little pink note in my hand, 'will you do a service for me?'
"'I belong to Madame la Duchesse d'Albany,' said I; 'yet I shall gladly obey you, madam.'
"'Then you shall have ten golden crowns.'
"'Ten crowns! Ah, madam,' said I, gallantly, 'I would rather have ten gifts less tangible.'
"'You shall have both, boy,' said she, laughing merrily; 'the crowns now and the kisses hereafter.'
"Her note to Francis proved successful: in less than ten minutes that princely monarch was at her feet. But with her kiss, she gave me a Parmese dagger, which she wore at her girdle, the gift of her present lover, Henry of Valois, and which you, madam, have so nobly replaced by this."
As he spoke, Florence, with the true loyal devotion of the olden time, kissed the cipher which was engraved on its hilt.
At that moment Master Posset reappeared, and whispered in the ear of the lady of the mansion.
"Excuse me, sir," said she; "there are those without who would speak with me."