Some hasty ejaculation, I do not know what, came from me, but she lifted her hand.
“Wait,” she said quietly. “As soon as he saw me he came straight toward me—”
“Oh, but this won’t do at all,” I broke out. “It’s too bad—”
“Wait.” She leaned forward slightly, lifting her hand again. “He called me ‘Madame d’Armand,’ and said he must know if he had offended me.”
“You told him—”
“I told him ‘No!’” And it seemed to me that her voice, which up to this point had been low but very steady, shook upon the monosyllable. “He walked with me a little way—perhaps It was longer—”
“Trust me that it sha’n’t happen again!” I exclaimed. “I’ll see that Keredec knows of this at once. He will—”
“No, no,” she interrupted quickly, “that is just what I want you not to do. Will you promise me?”
“I’ll promise anything you ask me. But didn’t he frighten you? Didn’t he talk wildly? Didn’t he—”
“He didn’t frighten me—not as you mean. He was very quiet and—” She broke off unexpectedly, with a little pitying cry, and turned to me, lifting both hands appealingly—“And oh, doesn’t he make one SORRY for him!”