“Poor Madame Raynal, she makes it very hard for me not to dislike her.”
“Dislike my Josephine?” and Rose bristled visibly.
“She is an angel, but I should hate an angel if it came forever between you and me.”
“Excuse me, she was here long before you. It is you that came between her and me.”
“I came because I was told I should be welcome,” said Edouard bitterly, and equivocating a little; he added, “and I dare say I shall go when I am told I am one too many.”
“Bad heart! who says you are one too many in the house? But you are too exigent, monsieur; you assume the husband, and you tease me. It is selfish; can you not see I am anxious and worried? you ought to be kind to me, and soothe me; that is what I look for from you, and, instead of that, I declare you are getting to be quite a worry.”
“I should not be if you loved me as I love you. I give YOU no rival. Shall I tell you the cause of all this? you have secrets.”
“What secrets?”
“Is it me you ask? am I trusted with them? Secrets are a bond that not even love can overcome. It is to talk secrets you run away from me to Madame Raynal. Where did you lodge at Frejus, Mademoiselle the Reticent?”
“In a grotto, dry at low water, Monsieur the Inquisitive.”