The count blushed up to his eyes.
"Do you think that quite impossible?" he stammered.
"No, but then if she should love someone else, she must say so."
"Listen, Frederic, I cannot positively say that she loves some one else, but I can declare that some one else loves her."
"That is half the battle. Is it some one as good as my Frenchman?"
"Ah! Frederic, you are so prejudiced in favour of your Frenchman. I dare not say yes."
"Then tell me at once. You see what might have happened had my Frenchman been here, and I had made any promise to him."
"Well, at any rate, you won't turn me out for saying it. The some one is myself."
"Always modest, loyal, and true, dear Karl but—"
"But? I will have no 'buts.'"