though nevertheless, she
retained her serene candor of an unsullied virgin, like she did almost
always on Sundays, after mass.

Then she took the second. He was very sentimental, and his head was full
of romance. He thought the unknown woman, who merely used him as her
plaything, really loved him, and he was not satisfied with furtive
meetings. He questioned her, besought her, and the Countess made fun of
him. Then she chose the two Mountebanks in turn. They did not know it,
for she had forbidden them ever to talk about her to each other, under
the penalty of never seeing her again, and one night the younger of them
said with humble tenderness, as he knelt at her feet:

"How kind you are, to love and to want me! I thought that such happiness
only existed in novels, and that ladies of rank only made fun of poor
strolling Mountebanks, like us!"

Regina knitted her golden brows.

"Do not be angry," he continued, "because I followed you and found out
where you lived, and your real name, and that you are a countess, and
rich, very rich."

"You fool!" she exclaimed, trembling with anger. "People would make you
believe things, as easily as they would a child!"

She had had enough of him; he knew her name, and might compromise her.
The Count might possibly come back from the country before the
elections, and then, the Mountebank began to love her. She no longer had
any feeling, any desire for those two lovers, whom a fillip from her
rosy fingers could bend to her will. It was time to go on to the next
chapter, and to seek for fresh pleasures elsewhere.

"Listen to me," she said to the champion shot, the next night. "I would
rather not hide anything from you. I like your comrade; I have given
myself to him, and I do not want to have anything more to do with you."

"My comrade!" he repeated.

"Well, what then? The change amuses me!"

He uttered a furious cry, and rushed at Regina with clenched fists. She
thought he was going to kill her, and closed her eyes, but he had not
the courage to hurt that delicate body, which he had so often covered
with caresses, and in despair, and hanging his head, he said hoarsely:

"Very well, we shall not meet again, since it is your wish."

The house at the _Eden Reunis_ was as full as an over-filled basket The
violins were playing a soft and delightful waltz of Gungl's, which the
reports of a revolver accentuated.

The Montefiores were standing opposite to one another, like in Che