"That was a very pretty piece of special pleading! And does she love her preserver?"
He blushed more deeply than before. Quick as lightning the thought flashed through his mind that jealousy is always efficacious as a stimulant to a woman's feelings, and decided him to tell only half a lie, so he answered, hesitatingly: "I don't know how that is; it may be so. She is very attentive to me."
Rather pettishly, Mme. de Burne murmured: "And you?"
He fastened upon her his eyes that were aflame with love, and replied: "Nothing could ever distract my thoughts from you."
This was also a very shrewd answer, but the phrase seemed to her so much the expression of an indisputable truth, that she let it pass without noticing it. Could a woman such as she have any doubts about a thing like that? So she was satisfied, in fact, and had no further doubts upon the subject of Elisabeth.
They took two canvas chairs and seated themselves in the shade of the lindens over the running stream. He asked her: "What did you think of me?"
"That you must have been very wretched."
"Was it through my fault or yours?"
"Through the fault of us both."
"And then?"