But the orphan, noting the bitter and cynical smile that played about the lips of the marquis as he spoke of the saintliness of the abbé's disciple, ventured to say:
"You have a poor opinion of M. de Macreuse, perhaps, marquis?"
"Perhaps? No, my opinion on that subject is very decided."
"I admit that I, too, distrusted M. de Macreuse," began Mlle. de Beaumesnil.
"So much the better," interrupted the marquis, hastily. "The wretch caused me far more anxiety than any of the others. I was so afraid that you would be duped by his pretended melancholy and his hypocrisy, but fortunately such persons not unfrequently excite the instinctive distrust of the honest and ingenuous."
"But you need feel no such apprehensions, I assure you," resumed Ernestine, triumphantly. "I must undeceive you on that point."
"Undeceive me?"
"In regard to M. de Macreuse? Yes."
"And why, pray?"
"Because there are no real grounds for any distrust. M. de Macreuse is a sincere and honourable man, plain-spoken almost to rudeness, in fact."