en I
am sure it will be different. As for you," he continued, looking at her
in a manner which he felt should certainly awaken some different
feeling in her inexperienced heart, "I admire you very much indeed. I
have seen you only once or twice, but I have thought of you much. Some
day I hope that we shall be very much better friends."

He leaned a little toward her, and Jeanne calmly removed herself a
little further away. She turned her head now to look at him, as she sat
upright upon the sofa, very slim and graceful in her white gown.

"I do not think so," she said. "I do not care about being friendly with
people whom I dislike, and I am beginning to dislike you very much
indeed because you will not go away when I ask you."

He rose to his feet a little offended.

"Very well," he said, "I will go and talk to your stepmother, who wants
me to play bridge, but very soon I shall come back, and before long I
think that I am going to make you like me very much."

He crossed the room, and Jeanne's eyes followed his awkward gait with a
sudden flash of quiet amusement. She watched him talk to her
stepmother, and she saw the Princess' face darken. As a matter of fact
De Brensault felt that he had some just cause for complaint.

"Dear Princess," he said, "you did not tell me that she was so very
farouche, so very shy indeed. I speak to her quite kindly, and she
tells me that she does not like me, and that she wished me to go away."

The Princess looked across the room towards Jeanne, who was calmly
reading, and apparently oblivious of everything that was passing.

"My dear Count," she said, tapping his hand with her fan, "she is very,
very serious. She would like to have been a nun, but of course we would
not hear of it. I think that she was a little afraid of you. You looked
at her very boldly, you know, and she is not used to the glances of
men. At her age, perhaps--you understand?"

The Count was not quite sure that he did understand. He had a most
unpleasant recollection of the firmness and decision with which Jeanne
had announced her views with regard to him, but he looked towards her
again and the look was fatal. Jeanne was certainly a most desirable
young person, quite apart from her dowry.

"It may be as you say, Princess," he said. "I must leave her to you for
a little time. You must talk to her. She is quite pretty," he added
with an involuntary note of condescension in his tone. "I am very
pleased with her.