“I promise you,” I said, “to stay here as long as you continue giving me such marks of your love as you have given me this morning.”
“Let us get up, then, and go to dinner.”
“In company, dearest? Look at your eyes.”
“All the better. People will guess what has happened, and the two countesses will burst with envy. I want everybody to know that it is for me alone that you are remaining at Aix.”
“I am not worth the trouble, my angel, but so be it; I will gladly oblige you, even though I lose all my money in the next three days.”
“I should be in despair if you lost; but if you abstain from punting you will not lose, though you may let yourself be robbed.”
“You may be sure that I know what I am about, and that I shall only allow ladies to rob me. You have had some money out of me yourself.”
“Yes, but not nearly so much as the countesses, and I am sorry you allowed them to impose on you, as they no doubt put it down to your being in love with them.”
“They are quite wrong, poor dears, for neither would have kept me here a day.”
“I am delighted to hear it. But let me tell you what the Marquis of St. Maurice was saying about you yesterday.”