"'I am availing myself of the leave of absence I owe to your good offices, and to divert my mind, I am going for a short gallop on the Paris road. Au revoir; I commend my fortune to your attention.'
"Ah ça! why, this Canolles is mad!"
"Mad? Why so?" rejoined Nanon.
"Does a sane man start off in this way at midnight, without a reason for so doing?"
"I should say as much," said Nanon to herself.
"Come, explain his departure to me."
"Eh! mon Dieu! monseigneur," said Nanon, with a charming smile, "nothing can be easier than that."
"She, too, calls him monseigneur," muttered Biscarros. "He is a prince, beyond question."
"Well, tell me."
"What! can you not guess which way the wind blows?"