ish to break the
heart especially of this _pauvre Monsieur de Chavannes_, that you have
treated us all with an air _si hautaine, si hautaine_, that if you had
been the Queen of France, it could not have been colder?"

"I told you once before, Monsieur Gironac," I replied, "that your Count
de Chavannes does not care a straw how I treat him, or with what air.
And if he did, I do not.--He is simply a civil, agreeable gentleman, who
looks upon me as he would upon any other young lady, whom he is glad to
talk to when she is in the humour to talk; and whom, when she is not, he
leaves to herself, as all well-bred men do. But, I repeat, I do not
care enough about him, to think for one moment, whether he is _hautaine_
or not. And he feels just the same about me, I am certain."

"What brings him here then, eh?--where he never came before to-night?
not for the _beaux yeux_ of Madame, I believe," with a quizzical bow to
his wife, "or for the _grand esprit_ of myself. I have an eye, I tell
you, as well as other people, and I can see one _petit peu_."

"I have no doubt you can, Monsieur," I answered, rather pettishly; "for
I suppose you asked him yourself; and, if you did so on my account, I
must beg you will omit that proof of kindness in future, for I do not
wish to see him."

"Oh! Monsieur Gironac, for shame, you have made her very angry with
your ridiculous badinage--you have made her angry, really, and I do not
wonder. Who ever heard of teasing a young lady about a gentleman she
has never seen, only three times, and who has never declared any
preference?"

"Madame," replied her husband, in great wrath, either real or simulated,
"_vous etes une ingrate,--une,--une_--words fail me, to express what I
think of your enormous and unkind ingratitude. I am _homme incompris_,
and Mademoiselle here--Mademoiselle is either _une enfant_, or she does
not know her own mind. Shall I give the Comte Chavannes his conge, or
shall I not? I shall not,--for if she be _une enfant_, it is fit her
friends look after her; if she does not know her own mind, it is good
she have some one who do!--_voila tout_. Here is why I shall not go
_congedier monsieur le Comte_. Why rather I shall request him to dine
with me to-morrow, the next day, the day after. If he do not, I swear
by my honour, _foi de Gironac_, I will dine at home again never more."

I could not help laughing at this tirade of the kind-hearted little man,
on the strength of whic