"You know very well, papa dear, that I am very grateful to Doctor
Potain, and I should not have gone away if he had been alone."
M. and Mme. Darbois looked at each other and at Esperance.
"Yes, my dear little mother, the Duke makes himself too agreeable for
your big daughter."
"But," said the philosopher, "I have never noticed it."
"You were absorbed in a philosophic discussion with the Doctor, and
the Duke was not speaking very loud."
"Can you not be more definite?" asked Francois Darbois a little
nervously.
Jean intervened, "May I say something?"
"Certainly, my boy."
"Well then. I heard the Duke de Morlay-La-Branche make fun of the
honesty of Count Styvens, and at that Esperance abruptly broke off the
conversation."
Francois turned towards Esperance.
"That is so," she said, kissing her father, "so tell me that you are
not angry with your little daughter."
For answer he kissed her tenderly.
"Ah! if I could find a way to shelter you from so much admiration,
from being so much sought after. Yet I don't know very well how to
defend you."
"Do not reproach yourself, dear father, you have been so good, so
trusting. I will never betray that confidence, and my godfather will
be obliged to consume all his own horrid prophecies."
CHAPTER XVIII
When Esperance's portrait was finished, the family could not admire it
enough. Maurice who was for himself, as for others, a severe critic,
said, "It is the first time that I have been satisfied with my own
work.
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