He broke off, described the patent stirrup in three gestures, how it
opened and released the foot. He showed the rider falling, the horse
galloping away, the released lady-rider rising to her feet and satisfying
herself that no bones were broken--all in three more gestures.

"Voila!" he said; "I shall send you one."

"And you as poor--as poor," said the baroness, whose husband was of the
new nobility, which is based, as all the world knows, on solid
manufacture. "My friend, you cannot afford it."

"I cannot afford to lose _you_" he said, with a sudden gravity, and with
eyes which, to the uninitiated, would undoubtedly have conveyed the
impression that she was the whole world to him. "Besides," he added, as
an after-thought, "it is only sixteen francs."

The baroness threw up her gay brown eyes.

"Just Heaven," she exclaimed, "what it is to be able to inspire such
affection--to be valued at sixteen francs!"

Then--for she was as quick and changeable as himself--she turned, and
touched his arm with her thickly-gloved hand.

"Seriously, my cousin, I cannot thank you, and you, Colonel Gilbert, for
your promptness and your skill. And as to my stupid husband, you know, he
has no words; when I tell him, he will only grunt behind his great
moustache, and he will never thank you, and will never forget. Never!
Remember that." And with a wave of the riding-whip, which was attached to