Diane turned on him a look as virginal as that of Jeanne d’Arc.
“No man can do me any harm,” she said, “except break my heart. I suppose some might do that. And besides, Jean, I am full of ambition. The women who misbehave and drink too much wine, lose their voices very soon and are not respectfully treated by managers. Don’t be afraid for me.”
“I am not,” answered Jean. “At least in the way you think. I am afraid of your breaking your heart and doing something foolish.”
“I shan’t do anything foolish,” promptly answered Diane.
When the Grandins and François finished their act and the curtain was down, even the placid Madame Grandin said a few mildly reproachful words to François for his carelessness which might have caused a bad accident. Grandin, who was sincerely attached to his wife, was much shaken and nervous and violently angry with François.
“Never mind,” answered François coolly to Grandin’s invectives, “wives come cheap, but if you are so shaken in the next turn as you are now, your wife will be in a great deal more danger than she was with me. Behave yourself, Grandin, and get the upper hand of your nerves. A juggler who loses his nerve because another juggler hasn’t tumbled fair, isn’t any good at all and a very dangerous person.”
Grandin was much taken aback by this onslaught of François, and could only mumble:
“I don’t know why it is, François, that you always get the upper hand of me.”
“I know,” replied François. “It is because I was born a-horseback and you were born a-footback. That’s why.”
The second appearance of Diane upon the stage was greeted with greater applause and laughter than ever. Jean, who was a capital low comedian and singer, was scarcely noticed. When the act was over, it had to be repeated, and at the end money was showered upon the stage. It was all silver, however, except one twenty franc gold piece which was thrown by the Marquis Egmont de St. Angel.