-looking, and insignificant; one
of those girls whom you do not notice, do not speak to, and do not talk
about.

The mother rose, and, turning to George, said:

"Then I may reckon upon you for next Thursday, two o'clock?"

"You may reckon upon me, madame," he replied.

As soon as she had taken her departure, Madame de Marelle rose in turn,
saying: "Good afternoon, Pretty-boy."

It was she who then clasped his hand firmly and for some time, and he
felt moved by this silent avowal, struck again with a sudden caprice for
this good-natured little, respectable Bohemian of a woman, who really
loved him, perhaps.

As soon as he was alone with his wife, Madeleine broke out into a laugh,
a frank, gay laugh, and, looking him fair in the face, said, "You know
that Madame Walter is smitten with you."

"Nonsense," he answered, incredulously.

"It is so, I tell you; she spoke to me about you with wild enthusiasm.
It is strange on her part. She would like to find two husbands such as
you for her daughters. Fortunately, as regards her such things are of no
moment."

He did not understand what she meant, and inquired, "How of no moment?"

She replied with the conviction of a woman certain of the soundness of
her judgment, "Oh! Madame Walter is one of those who have never even had
a whisper about them, never, you know, never. She is unassailable in
every respect. Her husband you know as well as I do. But with her it is
quite another thing. She has suffered enough through marrying a Jew, but
she has remained faithful to him. She is an honest woman."

Du Roy was surprised. "I thought her a Jewess, too," said he.

"She, not at all. She is a lady patroness of all the good works of the
Church of Madeleine. Her marriage, even, was celebrated religiously. I
do not know whether there was a dummy baptism as regards the governor,
or whether the Church winked at it."

George murmured: "Ah! so she fancied me."

"Positively and thoroughly. If you were not bespoken, I should advise
you to ask for the hand of--Susan, eh? rather than that of Rose."

He replied, twisting his moustache: "Hum; their mother is not yet out of
date."

Madeleine, somewhat out of patience, answered:

"Their mother! I wish you may get her, dear. But I am not alarmed on
that score. It is not at her age that a woman is guilty of a first
fault. One must set about it earlier."

George was reflecting: "If it were true, though, that I could have
married Susan."