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.