"Don't say another word, Mr. Carr," she said, with a laugh. "You know
you don't know anything, do you?"

"Good Lord, no!" said Johnny.

Meanwhile Mme. Devarges was giving me a cup of tea. As she handed it
to me, she said in a low voice:

"If I were his friend I should take care Johnny didn't know anything,
Mr. Martin."

"If I were his friend I should take care he told me what he knew, Mme.
Devarges," I replied.

"Perhaps that's what the colonel thinks," she said. "Johnny has just
been telling us how very attentive he has become. And the signorina
too, I hear."

"You don't mean that?" I exclaimed. "But, after all, pure kindness, no
doubt!"

"You have received many attentions from those quarters," she said. "No
doubt you are a good judge of the motives."

"Don't, now don't be disagreeable," said I. "I came here for peace."

"Poor young man! have you lost all your money? Is it possible that
you, like Don Antonio, haven't got a--"

"What is going to happen?" I asked, for Mme. Devarges often had