“It is our way. Dear friend, we are French. And I presume to think that our French system is not always wrong, for if my father had not broken it by treating you as one of us and leaving me with you, should I have heard...?”
“I have displeased you.”
“Do not suppose that. But, I mean, a mother would not have left me.”
“You wished to avoid it.”
“Do not blame me. I had some instinct; you were very pale.”
“You knew I loved you.”
“No.”
“Yes; for this morning...”
“This morning it seemed to me, and I regretted my fancy, that you were inclined to trifle, as, they say, young men do.”
“With Renée?”