“Oh John,’ said she, interrupting—‘I know your delicacy too well to suspect; but, in fact, I have myself perceived what you allude to, and wished very much to have some conversation with you on the subject.’
“‘Thank God,’ said I to myself, ‘at length, we understand each other—and the ice is broken at last.’
“‘Indeed, I think I have anticipated your wish in the matter; but as time presses, and I must look after all my packing, I shall say good by for a few weeks, and in the evening, Jepson, who stays here, will bring you, “what I mean,” over to your hotel; once more, then, good by.’
“‘Good by, my dearest, kindest friend,’ said I, taking a most tender adieu of the old lady. ‘What an excellent creature she is,’ said I, half aloud, as I turned towards home—‘how considerate, how truly kind—to spare me too all the pain of explanation.’ Now I begin to breathe once more. ‘If there be a flask of Johannisberg in the “Londres,” I’ll drink your health this day, and so shall Mary;’ so saying, I entered the hotel with a lighter heart, and a firmer step than ever it had been my fortune to do hitherto.
“‘We shall miss the old lady, I’m sure, Mary, she is so kind.’
“‘Oh! indeed she is; but then, John, she is such a prude.’
“Now I could not help recurring in my mind to some of the conversation in the Tuilleries garden, and did not feel exactly at ease.
“‘Such a prude, and so very old-fashioned in her notions.’
“‘Yes, Mary,’ said I, with more gravity than she was prepared for, ‘she is a prude; but I am not certain that in foreign society, where less liberties are tolerated than in our country, if such a bearing be not wiser.’ What I was going to plunge into, heaven knows, for the waiter entered at the moment, and presenting me with a large and carefully sealed package, said, ‘de la part de mi ladi Lilfore,’—‘but stay, here comes, if I am not mistaken, a better eulogy upon my dear aunt, than any I can pronounce.’
“How heavy it is, said I to myself, balancing the parcel in my hand. ‘There is no answer,’ said I, aloud to the waiter, who stood as if expecting one.