"Will you let me try?" she asked suddenly.
"You, Fernande?" exclaimed Mme. la Marquise. "What in the world can you do in the matter?"
"Quite a great deal, _ma tante_," replied Fernande with that demure little air, which sat so quaintly upon her laughter-loving face.
"Ronnay de Maurel," here interposed M. de Courson, "is not bait for a feminine fisher. If you have thoughts of casting your nets in that direction, my child...."
"I for one would protest," broke in Laurent hotly.
"Protest against what?" queried the girl, and she turned wide, inquiring eyes on the young man, eyes in which injured innocence, unfettered mischief and provoking coquetry were alike expressed.
"Against your sowing seeds of hope of ... of ..." stammered Laurent with a scowl; "against your exercising your arts on that lout, who no doubt is filled with self-conceit, and might imagine things which...."
Fernande leaned back in her chair, and her rippling childlike laugh roused the echoes of the ancient walls around.
"Oh, you funny, jealous old Laurent!" she said breathlessly. Then seeing that the young man still looked morose and wrathful, she went on, with a quick turn to seriousness: "You are childish, my dear cousin. Let me begin by reminding you that your jealousy is not only unjustifiable but singularly out of place. The interests of His Majesty being at stake, it behoves us all to sharpen our wits by mature reflection, rather than to dull them by senseless outbursts of temper. _Ma tante_ declared just now that M. de Maurel's wealth and influence would be of inestimable value to His Majesty, and yet owned that she was at her wits' ends how to bring him back repentant or reconciled to Courson. Well, where _ma tante_ owns to having failed, I still believe in success; and though father says that I am too young to turn a grave situation over in my mind, I am convinced that I can turn the present one to our advantage."
"But how, my dear child?" sighed Madame dejectedly, "how?"
"I don't know yet," rejoined Fernande, "but I would dearly love to try."
"To try and do what?" queried Laurent, who was by no means mollified.
"To make the bear dance to my piping," replied Fernande archly.
"If _ma tante_ grant me leave," quoth Fernande dryly, "you, my dear cousin, will not be asked to give your consent."