Full of pride and hope, he led her with sedulous politeness up the
shining marble steps.

***

"'Tell me, _belle dame_, what good fairy endowed you in your cradle
with the marvellous gift of transforming everything you touch into
something new and strange. The very flower in your hair has a
charm, as though it were wet with the fresh morning dew. And when
you dance it seems as though the floor swayed and undulated to
the rhythm of your footsteps."

The Count was himself quite astonished at this long and felicitous
compliment, for as a rule he did not find it easy to express
himself coherently. He expected, too, that his beautiful partner
would show her appreciation of his effort.

But he was disappointed. She leaned over the balcony, where they
were enjoying the cool evening air after the dance, and gazed out
over the crowd and the still-advancing carriages. She seemed not to
have understood the Count's great achievement; at least he could
only hear her whisper the inexplicable word, "Pharaoh."

He was on the point of remonstrating with her, when she turned
round, made a step towards the salon, stopped right in front of
him, and looked him in the face with great, wonderful eyes, such as
the Count had never seen before.

"I scarcely think, Monsieur le Comte, that any good fairy--perhaps