A bell at the gate had sounded, he hurried there and bowing, admitted Aurelia and that young person’s young man.
The girl made straight for the kennels. “Parsnips!” she delightedly exclaimed. “Aren’t those two big brutes simply dear?”
Swiftly Emmanuel intervened. “Pardon, they are very savage.” Then, as the girl hesitated he added: “Will mademoiselle give herself the trouble to pass into the salon?”
Aurelia tossed her pretty head. “No, I like it here. Besides I hate suggestions. Tell Madame Barouffska that I have come on a most unimportant matter which will probably detain me a very long time.”
“Yes,” her companion rejoined as the footman retreated. “Yes, I often think that it is only unimportant matters that are really momentous.” In his hand was a stick which negligently he twirled. “What is this one, if I may ask?”
“I have forgotten.”
“Perhaps then it was really important.”
Aurelia, who, with her delicious face and delicate garments, looked like a wayward angel, lifted a finger.
“So it was! So it was! I remember now I wanted to ask her how she likes matrimony.”
“Cæsar!” the youth exclaimed. “You are not collecting data on the subject, are you?”