These vague compliments were only such as admiring gallants were in the habit of lavishing upon pretty actresses, and Isabelle could not with any show of reason resent it openly, but she acknowledged it only by a very slight bend of the head, and still without looking up.  At this moment de Sigognac entered the green-room; he was masked and in full costume, just buckling around his waist the belt of the big sword he had inherited from Matamore, with the cobweb dangling from the scabbard.  He also marched straight up to Isabelle, and was received with a radiant smile.

“You are capitally gotten up,” she said to him in a low, tone, so low that he had to bend down nearer her to hear, “and I am sure that no fierce Spanish captain ever had a more superbly arrogant air than you.”

The Duke of Vallombreuse drew himself up to his full height, and looked this unwelcome new-comer over from head to foot, with an air of the coolest, most haughty disdain.  “This must be the contemptible scoundrel they say she’s in love with,” he said to himself, swelling with indignation and spite—­filled with amazement too—­for he could not conceive of a woman’s hesitating for an instant between the magnificent young Duke of Vallombreuse and this ridiculous play-actor.  After the first rapid glance he made as if he did not perceive de Sigognac at all, no more than if he had been a piece of furniture standing there; for him Captain Fracasse was not a man, but a thing, and he continued to gaze fixedly at poor Isabelle—­his eyes fairly blazing with passion—­exactly as though no one was near.  She, confused at last, and alarmed, blushed painfully, in spite of all her efforts to appear calm and unmoved, and hastened to finish what little remained to be done, so that she might make her escape, for she could see de Sigognac’s hand close spasmodically on the handle of his sword, and, realizing how he must be feeling, feared an outbreak on his part.  With trembling fingers she adjusted a little black “mouche” near the corner of her pretty mouth, and pushed back her chair preparatory to rising from it—­having a legitimate cause for haste, as the tyrant had already more than once roared out from the stage door, “Mesdemoiselles, are you ready?”

“Permit me, mademoiselle,” said the duke starting forward, “you have forgotten to put on an ‘assassine,’” and touching the tip of his forefinger to his lips he plunged it into the box of patches standing open on the dressing-table, and brought one out on it.  “Permit me to put it on for you—­here, just above your snowy bosom; it will enhance its exquisite whiteness.”

The action followed so quickly upon the words that Isabelle, terrified at this cruel effrontery, had scarcely time to start to one side, and so escape his profane touch; but the duke was not one to be easily balked in anything he particularly desired to do, and pressing nearer he again extended his hand towards Isabelle’s white neck, and had almost succeeded in accomplishing his object, when his arm was seized from behind, and held firmly in a grasp of iron.