Pere."

"You deny, then?" Madame was fast losing patience, a grave mistake when
one is dealing with a banterer.

Maurice changed the tune:

"J'aime les militaires, Leur uniforme coquet, Leur moustache et leur
plumet--"

"Answer!" with a stamp of the foot.

"Je sais ce que je voudrais, Je voudrais etre cantiniere!"...

"Monsieur," said the pretty countess, after a furtive glance at Madame's
stormy eyes, "do you deny?"

The whistle ceased. "Madame, to you I shall say that I neither deny nor
affirm. The affair is altogether too ridiculous to treat seriously. I
have nothing to say." The whistle picked up the thread again.

Doubt began to stir in the eyes of the Englishman. He looked at Madame
with a kind of indecision, to find that she was glancing covertly at
him. His gaze finally rested on Maurice, who had crossed his legs and
was keeping time to the music with his foot. Indeed, these were not the
violent protestations of innocence he had looked for. This demeanor was
not at all in accord with his expectations. Now that he had possessed
Madame's lips (though she might never possess the consols), Maurice did
not appear so guilty.

"Carewe," he said, "you have deceived me from the start."

"Ah! c'est un fameux regiment, Le regiment de la Grande Duchesse!"

"You knew that Madame was her Highness," went on the Englishman, "and
yet you kept that a secret from me. Can you blame me if I doubt you in
other respects?"

"Sonnez donc la trompette, Et battez les tambours!"

And the warbler nodded significantly at Madame, whose frown grew still
darker.

"Eh! Monsieur," cried the Colonel, with a protesting hand, "you are out
of tune!"

"I should like to know why you returned here," said Madame. "Either you
have some plan, or your audacity has no bounds."

The whistle stopped again. "Madame, for once we agree. I, too, should
like to know why I returned here."

"Carewe," said Fitzgerald, "if you will give me your word--"

"Do not waste your breath, Monsieur," interrupted Madame.

"Will you give me your word?" persisted Fitzgerald, refusing to see the
warning in Madame's eyes.

"I will give you nothing, my lord; nothing. I have said that I will
answer neither one way nor the other. The accusation is too absurd. Now,
Madame, what is your pleasure in regard to my disposition?"

"You are to be locked up, Monsieur," tartly. "You are too inquisitive to
remain at large."

"My confinement will be of short duration,"