people whom no one knows."

In spite of this very acrimonious comment, the fat little man's lips did
not lose the smile which the Colonel's suggestion had brought to them.
Montcornet returned to the lawyer, who had rejoined a neighboring group,
intent on asking, but in vain, for information as to the fair unknown.
He grasped Martial's arm, and said in his ear:

"My dear Martial, mind what you are about. Madame de Vaudremont has been
watching you for some minutes with ominous attentiveness; she is a woman
who can guess by the mere movement of your lips what you say to me;
our eyes have already told her too much; she has perceived and followed
their direction, and I suspect that at this moment she is thinking even
more than we are of the little blue lady."

"That is too old a trick in warfare, my dear Montcornet! However, what
do I care? Like the Emperor, when I have made a conquest, I keep it."

"Martial, your fatuity cries out for a lesson. What! you, a civilian,
and so lucky as to be the husband-designate of Madame de Vaudremont, a
widow of two-and-twenty, burdened with four thousand napoleons a year--a
woman who slips such a diamond as this on your finger," he added, taking
the lawyer's left hand, which the young man complacently allowed; "and,
to crown all, you affect the Lovelace, just as if you were a colonel and
obliged to keep up the reputation of the military in home quarters! Fie,
fie! Only think of all you may lose."

"At any rate, I shall not lose my liberty," replied Martial, with a
forced laugh.

He cast a passionate glance at Madame de Vaudremont, who responded only
by a smile of some uneasiness, for she had seen the Colonel examining
the lawyer's ring.

"Listen to me, Martial. If you flutter round my young stranger, I shall
set to work to win Madame de Vaudremont."

"You have my full permission, my dear Cuirassier, but you will not
gain this much," and the young Maitre des Requetes put his polished
thumb-nail under an upper tooth with a little mocking click.

"Remember that I am unmarried," said the Colonel; "that my sword is my
whole fortune; and that such a challenge is setting Tantalus down to a
banquet which he will devour."

"Prrr."

This defiant roll of consonants was the only reply to the Colonel's
declaration, as Martial looked him from head to foot before turning
away.

The fashion of the time required men to wear at a ball white kerseymere
breeches and silk stockings. This pretty