in; give me your arm," she said,--taking it and
leading the way to the dining-room with the flattering familiarity which
enchants all lovers.

The countess placed the captain beside her; his behavior was that of
a poor sub-lieutenant dining at his general's table. He let Clementine
talk, listened deferentially as to a superior, did not differ with her
in anything, and waited to be questioned before he spoke at all. He
seemed actually stupid to the countess, whose coquettish little ways
missed their mark in presence of such frigid gravity and conventional
respect. In vain Adam kept saying: "Do be lively, Thaddeus; one would
really suppose you were not at home. You must have made a wager to
disconcert Clementine." Thaddeus continued heavy and half asleep.
When the servants left the room at the end of the dessert the captain
explained that his habits were diametrically opposite to those of
society,--he went to bed at eight o'clock and got up very early in the
morning; and he excused his dulness on the ground of being sleepy.

"My intention in taking you to the Opera was to amuse you, captain; but
do as you prefer," said Clementine, rather piqued.

"I will go," said Paz.

"Duprez sings 'Guillaume Tell,'" remarked Adam. "But perhaps you would
rather go to the 'Varietes'?"

The captain smiled and rang the bell. "Tell Constantin," he said to the
footman, "to put the horses to the carriage instead of the coupe. We
should be rather squeezed otherwise," he said to the count.

"A Frenchman would have forgotten that," remarked Clementine, smiling.

"Ah! but we are Florentines transplanted to the North," answered
Thaddeus with a refinement of accent and a look in his eyes which
made his conduct at table seem assumed for the occasion. There was
too evident a contrast between his involuntary self-revelation in this
speech and his behavior during dinner. Clementine examined the captain
with a few of those covert glances which show a woman's surprise and
also her capacity for observation.

It resulted from this little incident that silence reigned in the salon
while the three took their coffee, a silence rather annoying to Adam,
who was incapable of imagining the cause of it. Clementine no longer
tried to draw out Thaddeus. The captain, on the other hand, retreated
within his military stiffness and came out of it no more, neither on the
way to the Opera nor in the box, where he seemed to be asleep.

"You see, madame, that I am