o, why did you not tell me sooner? I can
understand things. Let us remain here for a few days, or as long as you
like. I have arranged my affairs so as to be at liberty. Our little
paradise can wait for us."

He spoke pleasantly, but with an undercurrent of anxiety.

Jeanne came slowly to him, and calmly taking his hand, said:

"You are very good."

"I am not making any efforts to be so," retorted Cayrol, smiling. "What
do I ask? That you may be happy and satisfied."

"Well, do you wish to please me?" asked the young wife.

"Yes!" exclaimed Cayrol, warmly, "tell me how."

"Madame Desvarennes will be very lonely tomorrow when her daughter will
be gone. She will need consoling--"

"Ah, ah," said Cayrol, thinking that he understood, "and you would
like--"

"I would like to remain some time with her. You could come every day and
see us. I would be very grateful to you, and would love you very much!"

"But--but--but--!" exclaimed Cayrol, much confounded, "you cannot mean
what you say, Jeanne! What, my dear? You wish me to return alone to Paris
to-night? What would my servants say? You would expose me to ridicule!"

Poor Cayrol made a piteous face. Jeanne looked at him as she had never
looked before. It made his blood boil.

"Would you be so very ridiculous for having been delicate and tender?"

"I don't see what tenderness has to do with it," cried Cayrol; "on the
contrary! But I love you. You don't seem to think it!"

"Prove it," replied Jeanne, more provokingly.

This time Cayrol lost all patience.

"Is it in leaving you that I shall prove it? Really, Jeanne, I am
disposed to be kind and to humor your whims, but on condition that they
are reasonable. You seem to be making fun of me! If I give way on such
important points on the day of our marriage, whither will you lead me?
No; no! You are my wife. The wife must follow her husband; the law says
so!"

"Is it by law only that you wish to keep me? Have you forgotten what I
told you when you made me an offer of marriage? It is my hand only which
I give you."

"And I answered you, that it would be my aim to gain your heart. Well,
but give me the means. Come, dear," said the banker in a resolute tone,
"you take me for a child. I am not so simple as that! I know what this
resistance means; charming modesty so long as it is not everlasting."

Jeanne turned away without answering. Her face had changed its
expression; it was hard and determined.

"Really," c