him or disliked him,
she ever took heed of his looks; and I started when she cried
pettishly----

"Well, sir, what now? What is it?"

The Cardinal pursed up his lips.

My lord the Bishop could bear it no longer.

"He will say presently," he cried, snorting with indignation, "that it
is not the dog! It is that his Eminence would say," with a sneer, "if he
dared!"

His Eminence shrugged his shoulders very slightly, and turned the palms
of his hands outwards. "Oh," he said, "if her Majesty is satisfied I
am."

"_M'dieu!_" the Queen cried, with a spirt of anger--"what do you mean?"
But she turned to the lady who held the dog, and took it from her. "It
_is_ the dog!" she said, her colour high. "Do you think that I do not
know my own dog?" she continued. And she set the dog on its feet. She
called it "Flore! Flore!" It turned to her and wagged its tail eagerly,
and jumped upon her skirts, and licked her hand.

"Poor Flore!" said the Cardinal. "Flore!" It went to him.

"Certainly its name is Flore," he said: yet he continued to scan it with
a puzzled eye. "It is the dog, I suppose. But it used to die at the word
of command, I think?"

"What it did, it will do!" Monseigneur de Beauvais cried scornfully.
"But I see that your Eminence was right in one thing you said."

The Cardinal bowed.

"That I should be envied!" the Bishop retorted, with a sneer. And he
glanced round the circle. There was a slight though general titter; a
great lady at the Queen's elbow laughed out.

"Flore," said the Queen, "die! Die, good dog. Do you hear, _m'dieu!_
die!"

But the dog only gazed into her Majesty's face with a spaniel's soft
affectionate eyes, and wagged its tail; and though she cried to it again
and again, and angrily, it made no attempt to obey. On that a deep-drawn
breath ran round the circle; one looked at another; and there were
raised eyebrows. A score of heads were thrust forward, and some who had
seemed merry enough the moment before looked grave as mutes now.

"It used to bark for France and growl for Spain," the Cardinal continued
in his softest voice. "One of the charmingest things, madam, I ever saw.
Perhaps if your Majesty would try----"

"France!" the Queen cried imperiously; and she stamped on the floor.
"France! France!"

But the dog only retreated, cowering and dismayed. From a distance it
wagged its tail pitifully.

"France!" cried the Queen, almost with passion. The dog cowered.

"I am afraid, my