"I am too much interested in you," Pierre retorted. "And you with the cruelty of your sex have perceived that too quickly. But you are right to make it clear to me that you have only condescended to give me your company.... Ah, Mademoiselle, do you think I have forgotten that when you first met me I was the gardener's son?"
So he was! But he was French. And France was now a republic where all were equal.
"I remember perfectly what you were," said Mary. "But I don't remember that it made any difference to me when I was ten, and I don't see why it should make any difference when I'm twenty."
"Mademoiselle," cried Pierre, starting to his feet, "I entreat you not to mock me. I have no right to say what I feel for you. But at least I may beg you to spare my feelings."
"You really do speak English quite perfectly," Mary exclaimed in obvious, open-eyed admiration of his fluency.
"Mademoiselle, if I should wish to change my employer, I would beg you to give me a written testimonial."
"Ah, now it's you who are sneering at me," said Mary, turning upon Pierre reproachful eyes.
He made a gesture that was intended to convey how little it mattered to her what he did or what he said or what he thought. Who was he in her world?
Mary felt that it would give quite a wrong impression of herself if she did not succeed in convincing him that she despised those artificial barriers of rank and station to which he evidently supposed she attached so much importance.
"I assure you that I never was and never could be conscious of any difference between us like that," she affirmed. "I look upon you as an old friend whom Fate—Fate," she repeated emphatically, for she felt that it was imperative to make it clear from the start that Fate was going to be accounted culpable for anything that might happen, "whom Fate has brought once more into my life. I should never have allowed myself to take this walk with you alone, if I didn't consider you an old friend. And now I'm sure you ought to be keeping your appointment. It would never do for you to neglect your business on my account."