ximilian?"

"No one, but you appeared to be so. From the manner in which you walked
and talked together, one would have thought you were two school-girls
telling your secrets to each other."

"We were having a confidential conversation," returned Valentine; "she
was owning to me her repugnance to the marriage with M. de Morcerf; and
I, on the other hand, was confessing to her how wretched it made me to
think of marrying M. d'Epinay."

"Dear Valentine!"

"That will account to you for the unreserved manner which you observed
between me and Eugenie, as in speaking of the man whom I could not love,
my thoughts involuntarily reverted to him on whom my affections were
fixed."

"Ah, how good you are to say so, Valentine! You possess a quality which
can never belong to Mademoiselle Danglars. It is that indefinable charm
which is to a woman what perfume is to the flower and flavor to the
fruit, for the beauty of either is not the only quality we seek."

"It is your love which makes you look upon everything in that light."

"No, Valentine, I assure you such is not the case. I was observing you
both when you were walking in the garden, and, on my honor, without at
all wishing to depreciate the beauty of Mademoiselle Danglars, I cannot
understand how any man can really love her."

"The fact is, Maximilian, that I was there, and my presence had the
effect of rendering you unjust in your comparison."

"No; but tell me--it is a question of simple curiosity, and which was
suggested by certain ideas passing in my mind relative to Mademoiselle
Danglars"--

"I dare say it is something disparaging which you are going to say.
It only proves how little indulgence we may expect from your sex,"
interrupted Valentine.

"You cannot, at least, deny that you are very harsh judges of each
other."

"If we are so, it is because we generally judge under the influence of
excitement. But return to your question."

"Does Mademoiselle Danglars object to this marriage with M. de Morcerf
on account of loving another?"

"I told you I was not on terms of strict intimacy with Eugenie."

"Yes, but girls tell each other secrets without being particularly
intimate; own, now, that you did question her on the subject. Ah, I see
you are smiling."

"If you are already aware of the conversation that passed, the wooden
partition which interposed between us and you has proved but a slight
security."

"Come, what did she say?"

"She told me that