“I am a very happy woman,” said Lys.

“Mome was a very bad dog to-day,” I observed.

“Poor Mome!” said Lys, smiling.

When dinner was over and Mome lay snoring before the blaze—­for the October nights are often chilly in Finistere—­Lys curled up in the chimney corner with her embroidery, and gave me a swift glance from under her dropping lashes.

“You look like a schoolgirl, Lys,” I said teasingly.  “I don’t believe you are sixteen yet.”

She pushed back her heavy burnished hair thoughtfully.  Her wrist was as white as surf foam.

“Have we been married four years?  I don’t believe it,” I said.

She gave me another swift glance and touched the embroidery on her knee, smiling faintly.

“I see,” said I, also smiling at the embroidered garment.  “Do you think it will fit?”

“Fit?” repeated Lys.  Then she laughed

“And,” I persisted, “are you perfectly sure that you—­er—­we shall need it?”

“Perfectly,” said Lys.  A delicate color touched her cheeks and neck.  She held up the little garment, all fluffy with misty lace and wrought with quaint embroidery.

“It is very gorgeous,” said I; “don’t use your eyes too much, dearest.  May I smoke a pipe?”

“Of course,” she said selecting a skein of pale blue silk.

For a while I sat and smoked in silence, watching her slender fingers among the tinted silks and thread of gold.

Presently she spoke:  “What did you say your crest is, Dick?”

“My crest?  Oh, something or other rampant on a something or other——­”

“Dick!”

“Dearest?”

“Don’t be flippant.”

“But I really forget.  It’s an ordinary crest; everybody in New York has them.  No family should be without ’em.”

“You are disagreeable, Dick.  Send Josephine upstairs for my album.”

“Are you going to put that crest on the—­the—­whatever it is?”

“I am; and my own crest, too.”

I thought of the Purple Emperor and wondered a little.

“You didn’t know I had one, did you?” she smiled.

“What is it?” I replied evasively.

“You shall see.  Ring for Josephine.”

I rang, and, when ’Fine appeared, Lys gave her some orders in a low voice, and Josephine trotted away, bobbing her white-coiffed head with a “Bien, Madame!”

After a few minutes she returned, bearing a tattered, musty volume, from which the gold and blue had mostly disappeared.

I took the book in my hands and examined the ancient emblazoned covers.

“Lilies!” I exclaimed.

“Fleur-de-lis,” said my wife demurely.

“Oh!” said I, astonished, and opened the book.

“You have never before seen this book?” asked Lys, with a touch of malice in her eyes.

“You know I haven’t.  Hello!  What’s this?  Oho!  So there should be a de before Trevec?  Lys de Trevec?  Then why in the world did the Purple Emperor——­”