“If I were his friend I should take care he told me what he knew, Mme. Devarges,” I replied.
“Perhaps that’s what the colonel thinks,” she said. “Johnny has just been telling us how very attentive he has become. And the signorina too, I hear.”
“You don’t mean that?” I exclaimed. “But, after all, pure kindness, no doubt!”
“You have received many attentions from those quarters,” she said. “No doubt you are a good judge of the motives.”
“Don’t, now don’t be disagreeable,” said I. “I came here for peace.”
“Poor young man! have you lost all your money? Is it possible that you, like Don Antonio, haven’t got a—”
“What is going to happen?” I asked, for Mme. Devarges often had information.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But if I owned national bonds, I should sell.”
“Pardon me, madame; you would offer to sell.”
She laughed.