“Come hyar, Pepin,” cried the old dame.  “Mam’selle is took wid you.  I think she’d make you a good wife, my sweet one.”

Dorothy grew hot and cold at the very thought of it.  She really did not know what these people were capable of.

Pepin approached her with what he evidently intended to be dignified strides.  For the first time he honoured her with a searching scrutiny.  Poor Dorothy felt as if the black eyes of this self-important dwarf were reading her inmost thoughts.  She became sick with apprehension, and her eyes fell before his, In another minute the oracle spoke.

“No, ma mere, no,” he said.  “She is a nice girl upon the whole; her hair, her figure, and her skin are good, but her nose stops short too soon, and is inclined to be saucy.  Though her ways are sleek like a cotton-tail’s, I see devilry lurking away back in her eyes.  Moreover, her ways are those of a _grande dame_, and not our ways—­she would expect too much of us.  She is a good girl enough, but she will not do. _Voila tout!_” And with a not unkindly bow the _petit maitre_ turned his attention to Antoine, who, during the examination, had taken the opportunity of seizing its master’s cudgel and breaking it into innumerable little bits.

Dorothy breathed again, but, true to the nature of her sex, she resented the disparaging allusions to her nose and eyes—­even from Pepin.  What a conceited little freak he was, to be sure!  And to tell her that she would not do! At the same time she felt vastly relieved to think that the dwarf had resolved not to annex her.  The only danger was that he might change his mind.  His mother had taken his decision with praiseworthy resignation, and tried in a kindly fashion to lighten what she considered must be the girl’s disappointment.  Meanwhile Lagrange, judging by his lugubrious countenance, was evidently pondering over the pleasant prospect Pepin had predicted for him.  The dwarf himself was engaged in trying to force the fragments of the stick down Antoine’s throat, and the latter was angrily resenting the liberty.

Dorothy was becoming sleepy, what with the fatigue she had undergone during the day and the heat of the fire, when suddenly there came three distinct taps at one of the windows.

CHAPTER X

THE UNEXPECTED

It was fortunate for Antoine the bear that the taps at the window came when they did, for Pepin with his great arms had got it into such an extraordinary position —­doubtless the result of many experiments—­that it would most assuredly have had its digestion ruined by the sticks which its irate master was administering in small sections.  To facilitate matters, he had drawn its tongue to one side as a veterinary-surgeon does when he is administering medicine to an animal.  On hearing the taps the dwarf relinquished his efforts and went to the door.  The bear sat up on its haunches, coughing and making wry faces, at the same time looking around for moccasins or boots or something that would enable it to pay its master out with interest, and not be so difficult to swallow when it came to the reckoning.