“You have met three times a man whose name you do not know?”
“We are even on that score,” she said, “for he has spoken to me three times and does not know what I am called.”
“But to address you––”
“He called me Mademoiselle Unknown.”
“Bravo! This grows piquant; an adventure with all the flavor of the eighteenth instead of the nineteenth century. A real adventure, and you its heroine! Oh, Marquise, Marquise!”
“Ah! since you appreciate the humor of the affair you will no longer be oppressed by sentimental fancies concerning me;” and she nodded her head as though well pleased with the experiment of her confession. “You perceive how wildly improper I have been; still, I deny the eighteenth 31 century flavor, Monsieur. Then, with three meetings the cavalier would have developed into a lover, and having gained entrance to a lady’s heart, he would have claimed also the key to her castle.”
“Astute pupil of the nuns!––and Monsieur Incognito?”
“He certainly does not fancy me possessed of either castle or keys. I was to him only an unpretentious English companion in attendance on Madame Blanc in the woods of Fontainbleau.”
“English! Since when are you fond enough of them to claim kindred?”
“He was English; he supposed me so when I replied to him in that tongue. He had taken the wrong path and––”