ho are said to put on
masks to hide their fear and go resolutely forth to battle. Having
always considered this a lofty form of courage, he was inconsistent in
finding its reflection here--the fear of time beneath these painted
cheeks and fluffy locks, and the fight against it carried on by the
Marquise's whole brave bearing--rather pitifully comic.

Madame herself had no such feeling. She wore her mask with absolute
nonchalance, beginning to speak while still some yards away.

"Eh, bien, monsieur?"

Davenant doubled himself up into a deep bow, but before he had time to
stammer out some apologetic self-introduction, she continued:

"You've come from Davis and Stern, I suppose, on business. I always tell
them not to send me people, but to cable. Why didn't they cable? They
know I don't like Americans coming here. I'm pestered to death with
them--that is, I used to be--and I should be still, if I didn't put 'em
down."

The voice was high and chattering, with a tendency to crack. It had the
American quality with a French intonation. In speaking, the Marquise
made little nervous dashes, now to the right, now to the left, as though
endeavoring to get by some one who blocked her way.

"I haven't come on business, my--my lady."

He used this term of respect partly from a frightened desire to
propitiate a great personage and partly because he couldn't think of any
other.

"Then what _have_ you come on? If it's to see the chateau you may as
well go away. It's never shown. Those are positive orders. I make no
exceptions. They must have told you so at the gate. But you Americans
will dare anything. Mon Dieu, quel tas de barbares!"

The gesture of her hands in uttering the exclamation was altogether
French, but she betrayed her oneness with the people she reviled by
saying: "Quel tah de bah-bah!"

"I haven't come to see the chateau either, my lady--"

"You can call me madame," she interrupted, not without a kindlier
inflection on the hint.

He began again. "I haven't come to see the chateau, either--madame. I've
come to see _you_."

She made one of her little plunges. "Oh, indeed! _Have_ you? I thought
you'd learned better than that--over there. You used to come in
ship-loads, but--"

He began to feel more sure of himself. "When I say I came to see you,
madame, I mean, I came to--to tell you something."

"Then, so long as it's not on business, I don't want to hear it. I
suppose you're one of Walter Davenant's bo