"Great heavens!" he exclaimed. "'Because you are a man.'... 'Just like a man.' Nance, your phrases show intelligence! I might reply, 'Just like a woman.'... Bah, it positively sounds bourgeois.... Now, honest, lady, don't you really suppose that there are men who actually like infants in their crinkly state?"
"I've always wanted a baby," said Nance irrelevantly, "and some day I mean to have one."
"Thank God!" was Jean François' very serious ejaculation.
A moment later Nance was upon her feet ready to say good night and away to the pleasant land of sleep.
"Good night, dear Jean François," said she with gaiety. "May your dreams be of your beloved roads of Picardy."
She threw him an elfish kiss from her finger-tips and hastened into her airy improvised bedroom.
"And you, my daughter," murmured Jean François, as he turned upon his back and sought the stars between the interlacing boughs of the sheltering trees, "may you dream of Charles King, the old home of many pillars, of romping merry children, and a great love."