"Not too hard?"
"First, you must n't breathe a word to the Count of having seen me or—or anybody else."
"I should n't have done that, anyhow," remarked Dieppe, with a sudden twinge of conscience.
"Secondly, you must never try to see me, except when I give you leave."
"I won't try, I will only long," said the Captain.
"Thirdly, you must ask no questions."
"It is too soon to ask the only one which I would n't pledge myself at your bidding never to ask."
"To whom," inquired the lady, "do you conceive yourself to be speaking, Captain Dieppe?" But the look that accompanied the rebuke was not very severe.
"Tell me what I must do," implored the Captain.
She looked at him very kindly, partly because he was a handsome fellow, partly because it was her way; and she said with the prettiest, simplest air, as though she were making the most ordinary request and never thought of a refusal: