"Then good-bye, mademoiselle."

"Madame," she corrected lightly.

"Madame, my cousin," he said, and departed smiling.

Desiree went slowly upstairs again.



CHAPTER IV. THE CLOUDED MOON.



Quand on se mefie on se trompe, quand on ne se mefie pas, on est
trompe.

Charles Darragon had come to Dantzig a year earlier. He was a
lieutenant in an infantry regiment, and he was twenty-five. Many of
his contemporaries were colonels in these days of quick promotion,
when men lived at such a rate that few of them lived long. But
Charles was too easy-going to envy any man.

When he arrived he knew no one in Dantzig, had few friends in the
army of occupation. In six months he possessed acquaintances in
every street, and was on terms of easy familiarity with all his
fellow-officers.

"If the army of occupation had more officers like young Darragon," a