Andrée clasped her hands. “Oh, mon Dieu!” she cried, “he is, then, very ill?”
“Indeed he is not well. But tell me quickly what brings you here, for I cannot wait.”
“Well, doctor, we have spoken of it; I came to ask after him.”
Doctor Louis received this confession with a solemn silence, which Andrée took for a reproach.
“You may excuse this step, doctor,” she said, “as he was wounded in a duel with my brother.”
“Your brother! I was ignorant of that.”
“But now that you know it, you understand why I inquire after him.”
“Oh, certainly, my child,” said the good doctor, enchanted to find an excuse for being indulgent; “I could not know this.”
“A duel between two gentlemen is a thing of everyday occurrence, doctor.”
“Certainly; the only thing that could make it of importance would be that they have fought about a lady!”