"Who is she?" rejoined the marquis, trying to push Gilberte away, but too nervous to be able to do it; "tell me who she is, I insist upon knowing!"
"You do know, as I have already told you," said Jean with a shrug; "she is the sister of a country curé, with no money and no name. Is that why you speak so roughly to her? Do you want her to know what I know about you. Try not to let her see you in one of your attacks, Monsieur de Boisguilbault; you see that your savage airs make her sick with fright! and it's a devil of a way of entertaining her and doing the honors of your house! She could hardly expect this after being so polite to you; and the worst of it is that I can't tell her what the matter is with you, because I haven't any idea myself."
"I don't know whether you are making sport of me," said the marquis, deeply distressed; "but what did you mean just now?"
"Something that would have given you pleasure, but which I won't tell you now, as you are out of your head."
"Speak, Jean; explain yourself; I can't stand this uncertainty."
"I can't stand it either," said Gilberte, bursting into tears. "I don't know, Jean, what you have said or tried to say about me; I don't know what my position is here, but it is unendurable to me. Let us go!"
"No—no—" said the marquis, beset by irresolution and shame; "it is still raining, the weather is horrible and I don't want you to go."
"Well, then, why did you want to turn her out just now?" retorted Jean with contemptuous tranquillity; "who can understand your whims? For my part, I give it up, and I am going."
"I will not stay here without you!" cried Gilberte, rising and running after the carpenter, as he walked toward the door.
"Mademoiselle—or madame," said Monsieur de Boisguilbault, stopping her and detaining the carpenter also, "please listen to me, and if you know nothing of the strange thoughts that assail me at this moment, forgive an agitation which must seem very absurd to you, but which is very painful to me, I assure you! I owe you an explanation of it, however. Jean just gave me to understand that you were not the person that I supposed—but another person—whom I do not wish to see or to know. Mon Dieu! I don't know how to tell you. Either you understand me too well or you cannot understand me at all."