vous-en bien!" And Madame Merle was on her feet. "Don't set her
going, or you'll spoil everything."

Rosier gazed into his hat; he wondered whether his hostess HAD been
after all the right person to come to. "I don't think I understand
you. I'm an old friend of Mrs. Osmond, and I think she would like me to
succeed."

"Be an old friend as much as you like; the more old friends she has the
better, for she doesn't get on very well with some of her new. But don't
for the present try to make her take up the cudgels for you. Her husband
may have other views, and, as a person who wishes her well, I advise you
not to multiply points of difference between them."

Poor Rosier's face assumed an expression of alarm; a suit for the hand
of Pansy Osmond was even a more complicated business than his taste
for proper transitions had allowed. But the extreme good sense which
he concealed under a surface suggesting that of a careful owner's "best
set" came to his assistance. "I don't see that I'm bound to consider Mr.
Osmond so very much!" he exclaimed. "No, but you should consider HER.
You say you're an old friend. Would you make her suffer?"

"Not for the world."

"Then be very careful, and let the matter alone till I've taken a few
soundings."

"Let the matter alone, dear Madame Merle? Remember that I'm in love."

"Oh, you won't burn up! Why did you come to me, if you're not to heed
what I say?"

"You're very kind; I'll be very good," the young man promised. "But I'm
afraid Mr. Osmond's pretty hard," he added in his mild voice as he went
to the door.

Madame Merle gave a short laugh. "It has been said before. But his wife
isn't easy either."

"Ah, she's a splendid woman!" Ned Rosier repeated, for departure.
He resolved that his conduct should be worthy of an aspirant who was
already a model of discretion; but he saw nothing in any pledge he
had given Madame Merle that made it improper he should keep himself
in spirits by an occasional visit to Miss Osmond's home. He reflected
constantly on what his adviser had said to him, and turned over in his
mind the impression of her rather circumspect tone. He had gone to her
de confiance, as they put it in Paris; but it was possible he had been
precipitate. He found difficulty in thinking of himself as rash--he had
incurred this reproach so rarely; but it certainly was true that he had
known Madame Merle only for the last month, and that his thinking her
a delightful woman was not,