"Then what?"
"I want to hear him speak to me, Maman chérie—oh, I am sure that he will say naught that is unseemly—he is too proud and too rigid for that—but, when you and papa are in the room he never, never speaks to me at all—I have oft wondered if he thought me a goose. When he comes, he greets me of a truth as if I were a queen, he kisses my hand—and bows in the most correct manner—then, when I sing to him and play on the harpsichord, he praises my voice, and coldly thanks me for the entertainment—"
"And 'tis right and proper conduct on the part of a great gentleman," retorted maman hotly, "thou wouldst not have him kiss thee, as if thou wert a kitchen wench."
But Rose Marie did not commit herself into saying what she did wish in this matter, but continued with seeming irrelevance.
"When I go out of the room, after the frigid and stately adieux which my lord bestows upon me, I oft hear his ringing, merry voice echoing up the stairs, right through the walls to my room. I hear papa and you laughing, in obvious response to his sallies—and once—it was yesterday—I stayed peeping over the bannister until my lord departed—"
"Very unseemly behaviour," growled maman whilst an obvious blush rose to her fat cheeks, and her little, beady eyes seemed to twinkle at a certain recollection.
"I saw my lord take thee in his arms, Maman," continued Rose Marie with stern reproach, "and he imprinted two such kisses on thy cheeks that literally raised the echoes in the house and must have been heard in the 'prentices' shop."
Maman made great efforts to preserve her gravity.
"Well!" she said, "and if he did—I am old enough to be his mother—and would it had pleased God to give me a son like him! Those merry eyes give joy to my heart when I look into them, and he has such funny ways with him—such amusing sallies—why not later than yesterday, he said, speaking of Mme. Renaud, the cobbler's wife down the street, that—"
Maman caught Rose Marie's blue eyes fixed eagerly upon her—there were no tears in them now—only excitement and curiosity—Maman promptly checked her own flow of eloquence and suddenly resumed her gruff, stern voice.