"Gaston, Gaston!" I muttered, "at thirty-two you are more a fool than ever
you were at twenty."
I told myself then that my fancy had vested her tone and look with a
kindliness far beyond that which they contained, and as I thought of how I
had deemed impatient the little gesture wherewith she had greeted
Genevi?ve's interruption I laughed again.
From the reverie into which, naturally enough, I lapsed, it was
Mademoiselle who aroused me. She stood beside me with an unrest of manner
so unusual in her, that straightway I guessed the substance of her talk
with Genevi?ve.
"So, Mademoiselle," I said, without waiting for her to speak, "you have
learned what is afoot?"
"I have," she answered. "That they love each other is no news to me. That
they intend to wed does not surprise me. But that they should contemplate
a secret marriage passes my comprehension."
I cleared my throat as men will when about to embark upon a perilous
subject with no starting-point determined.
"It is time, Mademoiselle," I began, "that you should learn the true cause
of M. de Mancini's presence at Canaples.
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