girl was astonished; then she smiled as a woman would have done at
this idea, which shocked her a little as well as astonished her, and
murmured: "Rooms are not meant to be played in."

He said: "It is all the same to me. I play everywhere. Come, catch me."

And he began to go round the table, exciting her to pursue him, while
she came after him, smiling with a species of polite condescension, and
sometimes extending her hand to touch him, but without ever giving way
so far as to run. He stopped, stooped down, and when she drew near with
her little hesitating steps, sprung up in the air like a
jack-in-the-box, and then bounded with a single stride to the other end
of the dining-room. She thought it funny, ended by laughing, and
becoming aroused, began to trot after him, giving little gleeful yet
timid cries when she thought she had him. He shifted the chairs and used
them as obstacles, forcing her to go round and round one of them for a
minute at a time, and then leaving that one to seize upon another.
Laurine ran now, giving herself wholly up to the charm of this new game,
and with flushed face, rushed forward with the bound of a delighted
child at each of the flights, the tricks, the feints of her companion.
Suddenly, just as she thought she had got him, he seized her in his
arms, and lifting her to the ceiling, exclaimed: "Touch."

The delighted girl wriggled her legs to escape, and laughed with all her
heart.

Madame de Marelle came in at that moment, and was amazed. "What,
Laurine, Laurine, playing! You are a sorcerer, sir."

He put down the little girl, kissed her mother's hand, and they sat down
with the child between them. They began to chat, but Laurine, usually so
silent, kept talking all the while, and had to be sent to her room. She
obeyed without a word, but with tears in her eyes.

As soon as they were alone, Madame de Marelle lowered her voice. "You do
not know, but I have a grand scheme, and I have thought of you. This is
it. As I dine every week at the Forestiers, I return their hospitality
from time to time at some restaurant. I do not like to entertain company
at home, my household is not arranged for that, and besides, I do not
understand anything about domestic affairs, anything about the kitchen,
anything at all. I like to live anyhow. So I entertain them now and then
at a restaurant, but it is not very lively when there are only three,
and my own acquaintances scarcely go well with them. I t