. 'I regret that I have not the honour of his
acquaintance.'

She eyed me with some surprise. 'Yet still, sir,' she answered, smiling
a little, and toying with a gold brooch which clasped her habit, 'you
must have had some ground, some reason, for supposing you would find a
friend here?'

'True, madame,' I answered, 'but I was mistaken.'

I saw her colour suddenly. With a smile and a faint twinkle of the eye
she said, 'It is not possible, sir, I suppose--you have not come here,
I mean, out of any reason connected with a--a knot of velvet, for
instance?'

I started, and involuntarily advanced a step towards her. 'A knot of
velvet!' I exclaimed, with emotion. 'Mon Dieu! Then I was not mistaken!
I have come to the right house, and you--you know something of this!
Madame,' I continued impulsively, 'that knot of velvet? Tell me what it
means, I implore you!'

She seemed alarmed by my violence, retreating a step or two, and looking
at me haughtily, yet with a kind of shame-facedness. 'Believe me, it
means nothing,' she said hurriedly. 'I beg you to understand that, sir.
It was a foolish jest.'

'A jest?' I said. 'It fell from this window.'

'It was a jest, sir,' she answered stubbornly. But I could see that,
with all her pride, she was alarmed; her face was troubled, and there
were tears in her eyes. And this rendered me under the circumstances
only the more persistent.

'I have the velvet here, madame,' I said. 'You must tell me more about
it.'

She looked at me with a weightier impulse of anger than she had yet
exhibited. 'I do not think you know to whom you are speaking,' she said,
breathing fast. 'Leave the room, sir, and at once! I have told you it
was a jest. If you are a gentleman you will believe me, and go.' And she
pointed to the door.

But I held my ground, with an obstinate determination to pierce the
mystery. 'I am a gentleman, madame,' I said, 'and yet I must know more.
Until I know more I cannot go.'

'Oh, this is insufferable!' she cried, looking round as if for a way of
escape; but I was between her and the only door. 'This is unbearable!
The knot was never intended for you, sir. And what is more, if M. de
Bruhl comes and finds you here, you will repent it bitterly.'

I saw that she was at least as much concerned on her own account as on
mine, and thought myself justified under the circumstances in taking
advantage of her fears. I deliberately laid my cap on the table which
stood beside me. '