hen they reached the house in the Cours la Reine Mr. Probert said: "I
think you told me you're dining out."

"Yes, with our friends."

"'Our friends'? Comme vous y allez! Come in and see me then on your
return; but not later than half-past ten."

From this the young man saw he had swallowed the dose; if he had found
it refuse to go down he would have cried for relief without delay. This
reflexion was highly agreeable, for Gaston perfectly knew how little he
himself would have enjoyed a struggle. He would have carried it through,
but he couldn't bear to think of that, and the sense of the further
arguments he was spared made him feel at peace with all the world. The
dinner at the hotel became the gayest of banquets in honour of this
state of things, especially as Francie and Delia raved, as they said,
about his poppa.

"Well, I expected something nice, but he goes far beyond!" Delia
declared. "That's my idea of a real gentleman."

"Ah for that--!" said Gaston.

"He's too sweet for anything. I'm not a bit afraid of him," Francie
contributed.

"Why in the world should you be?"

"Well, I am of you," the girl professed.

"Much you show it!" her lover returned.

"Yes, I am," she insisted, "at the bottom of all."

"Well, that's what a lady should be--afraid of her lord and master."

"Well, I don't know; I'm more afraid than that. You'll see."

"I wish you were afraid of talking nonsense," said happy Gaston.

Mr. Dosson made no observation whatever about their grave bland visitor;
he listened in genial unprejudiced silence. It was a sign of his
prospective son-in-law's perfect comprehension of him that Gaston knew
this silence not to be in any degree restrictive: it didn't at all mean
he hadn't been pleased. Mr. Dosson had nothing to say because nothing
had been given him; he hadn't, like his so differently-appointed young
friend, a sensitive plate for a brain, and the important events of his
life had never been personal impressions. His mind had had absolutely no
history with which anything occurring in the present connexion could be
continuous, and Mr. Probert's appearance had neither founded a state nor
produced a revolution. If the young man had asked him how he liked his
father he would have said at the most: "Oh I guess he's all right!" But
what was more touchingly candid even than this in Gaston's view was
the attitude of the good gentleman and his daughters toward the others,
Mesdames de Douves, de Brec