keep you here to dine and sleep, and when my wife
comes home, I hope we shall be able to arrange matters."

Rivet resisted at first, but the wish to extricate that _Pig of a
Morin_, decided him, and we accepted the invitation, and so the uncle
got up radiant, called his niece, and proposed that we should take a
stroll in his grounds, saying: "We will leave serious matters until the
morning." Rivet and he began to talk politics, while I soon found myself
lagging a little behind with the girl, who was really charming!
charming! and with the greatest precaution I began to speak to her about
her adventure, and try to make her my ally. She did not, however, appear
the least confused, and listened to me like a person who was enjoying
the whole thing very much.

I said to her: "Just think, Mademoiselle, how unpleasant it will be for
you. You will have to appear in Court, to encounter malicious looks, to
speak before everybody, and to recount that unfortunate occurrence in
the railway carriage, in public. Do you not think, between ourselves,
that it would have been much better for you to have put that dirty
scoundrel back into his place without calling for assistance, and merely
to have changed your carriage." She began to laugh, and replied: "What
you say is quite true! but what could I do? I was frightened, and when
one is frightened, one does not stop to reason with oneself. As soon as
I realized the situation, I was very sorry that I had called out, but
then it was too late. You must also remember that the idiot threw
himself upon me like a madman, without saying a word and looking like a
lunatic. I did not even know what he wanted of me."

She looked me full in the face, without being nervous or intimidated,
and I said to myself: "She is a funny sort of a girl, that; I can quite
see how that pig Morin came to make a mistake," and I went on, jokingly:
"Come, Mademoiselle, confess that he was excusable, for after all, a man
cannot find himself opposite such a pretty girl as you are without
feeling a legitimate desire to kiss her."

She laughed more than ever, and showed her teeth, and said: "Between the
desire and the act, Monsieur, there is room for respect." It was a funny
expression to use, although it was not very clear, and I asked
abruptly: "Well now, supposing I were to kiss you now, what would you
do?" She stopped to look at me from head to foot, and then said calmly:
"Oh! you? That is quite another matter."

I