The ladies laughed more heartily. Frans was greatly astonished.

"I assure you he is one of the best fellows I know. And marvellously
clever. The talent runs in our family. As a boy I was two whole summers
in the circus with him."

The others laughed.

"What the deuce can you be laughing at? I never had a better time in my
life than in the circus."

The two ladies, unable to control their merriment, hurried towards the
door. Roey was obliged to follow, but was offended.

"I have not the faintest idea what is amusing you," he said, when they
were all seated in the carriage. Nevertheless he laughed himself.

The little misunderstanding resulted in all three being in the best of
humours when they stopped in front of Mary's house. Alice and Frans Roey
drove on without her. Frans turned blissfully to Alice and asked if he
had not been a good boy to-day? if he had not kept himself well in hand?
if his "affair" were not progressing splendidly? He did not wait for her
answer; he laughed and chattered; and he was determined to go in with
her. But this Alice had no intention of allowing. Then he demanded, as
his reward for not persisting, that she should take them both for a
drive in the Bois de Boulogne, in the direction of La Bagatelle. It was
to be in the morning, about nine o'clock; then the scent of the trees
would be strongest, the song of the birds fullest; and then they would
still have the place to themselves. This she promised.

On the following Friday she called for Mary before nine in the morning,
and they drove on to pick up Frans Roey.

From a long way off Alice saw him marching up and down on the pavement.
His face and bearing filled her with a presentiment of mischief. Mary
could not see him until they stopped. But then a flame rushed into her
face, kindled by the fire in his. He boarded the carriage like a
captured vessel. Alice hastened to attract his attention in order to
avoid an immediate outburst.

"How lovely the morning is," she said; "just because the sun is not
shining in its full strength! Nothing can be more beautiful than this
subdued tone over a scene as full of colour as that towards which we are
driving."

But Frans did not hear; he understood nothing but Mary. The white veil
thrown back over her red hair, the fresh, half open mouth, deprived him
of his senses. Alice remarked that the woods had become more fragrant
since the Japanese trees had grown up. Each time these flung a wanton
p