"Oh, I had some shopping and some visits to pay—you know I am always behind. How comfortable you are here!"
"Ah, yes, to be sure, you hadn't seen my new arrangements."
"Dear me, how well you do arrange everything! There's no one like you, really. It isn't damp here is it, are you quite sure?" and Mme. Mauperin put her hand against the wall. "Tell Georges to air the room always when you are away, won't you?"
"Yes, yes, mother," said Henri in a bored way, as one answers a child.
"Oh, why do you have those? I don't like your having such things." Mme. Mauperin had just caught sight of two swords above the bookcase. "The very sight of them! When one thinks—" and Mme. Mauperin closed her eyes for an instant and sat down. "You don't know how your dreadful bachelor life makes us poor mothers tremble. If you were married, it seems to me that I should not be so worried about you. I do wish you were married, Henri!"
"I do, too, I can assure you."
"Really? Come, now—mothers, you know—well, secrets ought not to be kept from them. I am so afraid, when I look at you, handsome as you are, and so distinguished and clever and fascinating. You are just the sort of man that any one would fall in love with, and I'm so afraid——"
"Of what?"
"Lest you should have some reason for not——"
"For not marrying, you mean, don't you? A chain—is that what you mean?"