Madeleine replied:
"Until to-night!"
Paul believed he suddenly felt his heart enveloped in ice.
They re-entered the house for dinner.
They installed themselves in one of the arbors, close to the water, and set about eating in silence. When night arrived, they brought a candle inclosed in a glass globe, which lit them up with a feeble and glimmering light; and they heard every moment the bursting out of the shouts of the boatmen in the great saloon on the first floor.
Towards dessert, Paul, taking Madeleine's hand, tenderly said to her:
"I feel very tired, my darling; unless you have any objection, we will go to bed early."
She, however, understood the ruse, and shot an enigmatical glance at him, that glance of treachery which so readily appears at the bottom of a woman's eyes. Then having reflected she answered:
"You can go to bed if you wish, but I have promised to go to the ball at La Grenonillère."
He smiled in a piteous manner, one of those smiles with which one veils the most horrible suffering, but he replied in a coaxing but agonized tone: