She smiled, with a shade of sadness, in her page's costume. A dry cough brought red gleams to her cheeks.
"It's the hardbake," said she. "At home I'm forbidden to eat it. Pass me the plate, I will put the rest in my pocket."
And she was emptying the plate when Renée entered the room. She went straight to Maxime, making unheard-of efforts not to swear, not to beat the hunchback whom she found there at table with her lover.
"I wish to speak to you," she stammered in a husky voice.
He hesitated, frightened, dreading to be with her.
"To you alone, at once," repeated Renée.
"Go then, Maxime," said Louise, with her undefinable look. "At the same time you might try to find my father. I lose him at every party."
He rose up, he tried to stop the young woman in the middle of the dining-room by asking her what she could have of so urgent a nature to say to him. But she resumed between her teeth:
"Follow me, or I shall speak out before every one!"
He turned very pale and followed her with the docility of a beaten animal. She thought that Baptiste was looking at her; but at this moment she cared nought for the valet's clear gaze! At the door, the cotillon detained her for the third time.