ands.

"Will my lord throw this about him?" and without any question I assumed
the cloak.

"Now this," and she handed me a mask while she affixed one about her
own face.

I demurred to the mask.

"I will not take my lady upon an errand where we can not show our
faces."

She laughed merrily, and replied: "It is the way of Paris, my lord,
and naught is thought of it. Many lords and ladies wish to keep their
faces from the _canaille_."

I drew a breath of resignation and put it on.

"Am I not a comely man?" the lady asked, one touch of woman's vanity
showing through it all.

"Yes, by my faith, madame;" but such sayings were foreign to my awkward
tongue.

She led me out of the palace by a private way, and when the street was
reached we walked along as two men would. She directed our course, and
as she gave no hint of her destination I did not inquire. It was but a
brief walk before we came to an arched door on a side street, and there
she paused and looked carefully about to see that no one watched us and
then--in we went.

The lady seemed in highest spirits over her unaccountable prank, and
laughed girlishly. "Now I will gratify my curiosity. You know I admit
my curiosity, sometimes. These men are not alone in their thirst for
excitement. It is so tiresome at court, ever the same thing day after
day."

We had now come into a fairly wide, well-lighted hall, and an
obsequious attendant showed us up a stair, and opening a door, pointed
out the place she asked for. Imagine my utter astonishment when we
stood together within the gaming room at Bertrand's. What an infernal
fool I had been to be tempted back into this very place of all others.
I thought at once it was some cowardly trick of Yvard's. I seized the
woman by the arm, for I supposed her then but another decoy; there was
no telling how far this Spanish intrigue had gone or what high
personages Madame du Maine might be able to enlist in furtherance of
her schemes. I seized her firmly, and had taken one step back towards
the door again, when her cold ringing voice undeceived me.

"What means my lord; I thought him a gentleman. Shall I appeal for
protection to these low men here?"

There was such a truth in her low tones that I cast her free, and in
some measure explained my thought.

"Well, well, we'll not quarrel here," and looking about her with eager
curiosity, she chose a table where fewest players sat, and thitherwards
we went. Thi