All that for her! She threw her
hat quickly on a chair and ran from vase to basket, from basket to
vase. The first card she drew out said Jean Perliez. She looked for
him to thank him, but he had slipped away to hide his confusion. For
he had taken such pains to order that bouquet through the hotel manager,
never foreseeing that others might have had the same idea! A pretty
basket of azaleas came from the Director of the Monnaie. In the middle
of the room, on a marble table with protruding golden feet, stood a
huge basket of orchids of every shade--this orgy of rare flowers was
an attention from the Count. The girl grew red as she raised her eyes
to thank him. He was looking at her so strangely that she stammered
and fled into the next room, where she had seen Mlle. Frahender
disappear.
"That man frightens me," she whispered, pressing close to her old
friend.
"Who frightens you, dear child?"
"Count Styvens."
"That gentlemanly young man, who is so considerate?"
Esperance did not dare to speak her thought. "That is not the way that
others look at me." She was ashamed to entertain such an idea!
The _maitre d'hotel_ knocked discreetly to announce lunch.
"Oh! let us begin at once, so that we shall not lose any time in
seeing Brussels!"
They set out in great spirits, following wherever the caprice of
Esperance led them. "Already a famous woman, and what a child she is,"
Maurice observed aside to Jean.
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