It's not for ourselves I'm afraid; it's for them. They'll
be very unhappy."

"Never, never!" said Gaston. "They're too simple. They'll remain so.
They're not morbid nor suspicious. And don't you like Francie? You
haven't told me so," he added in a moment.

"She talks about 'Parus,' my dear boy."

"Ah to Susan too that seemed the great barrier. But she has got over it.
I mean Susan has got over the barrier. We shall make her speak French;
she has a real disposition for it; her French is already almost as good
as her English."

"That oughtn't to be difficult. What will you have? Of course she's very
pretty and I'm sure she's good. But I won't tell you she is a marvel,
because you must remember--you young fellows think your own point of
view and your own experience everything--that I've seen beauties without
number. I've known the most charming women of our time--women of an
order to which Miss Francie, con rispetto parlando, will never begin to
belong. I'm difficult about women--how can I help it? Therefore when
you pick up a little American girl at an inn and bring her to us as
a miracle, feel how standards alter. J'ai vu mieux que ca, mon cher.
However, I accept everything to-day, as you know; when once one has lost
one's enthusiasm everything's the same and one might as well perish by
the sword as by famine."

"I hoped she'd fascinate you on the spot," Gaston rather ruefully
remarked.

"'Fascinate'--the language you fellows use! How many times in one's life
is one likely to be fascinated?"

"Well, she'll charm you yet."

"She'll never know at least that she doesn't: I'll engage for that,"
said Mr. Probert handsomely.

"Ah be sincere with her, father--she's worth it!" his son broke out.

When the elder man took that tone, the tone of vast experience and a
fastidiousness justified by ineffable recollections, our friend was more
provoked than he could say, though he was also considerably amused, for
he had a good while since, made up his mind about the element of rather
stupid convention in it. It was fatuous to miss so little the fine
perceptions one didn't have: so far from its showing experience it
showed a sad simplicity not to FEEL Francie Dosson. He thanked God she
was just the sort of imponderable infinite quantity, such as there were
no stupid terms for, that he did feel. He didn't know what old frumps
his father might have frequented--the style of 1830, with long curls in
front, a vapid simper, a Sc