Madame de Juzencourt, who was seated on the terrace, called out as soon as she caught sight of them:
"Well, have you been walking all this time?"
And at the same moment M. de Rueille called out to Bijou, who had just appeared at one of the windows:
"So that's the way you come out to us! It's very kind of you."
"I could not come before," she answered, stepping out, and then approaching her cousin, she added, in a low voice: "I had to see to the tea and the ices, etc., etc.; you must not be vexed with me."
"Vexed with you!" exclaimed Pierrot warmly. "Could anyone be vexed with you, now?"
Bijou did not answer. She was watching Hubert de Bernès in an absent-minded way, as he stood talking to Bertrade, and she was wondering how it was that he was so cool in his manner towards herself. He was polite, certainly, and even pleasant, but only polite and pleasant, and she was not accustomed to such moderation. M. de Clagny appeared presently at one of the windows and called out:
"Mademoiselle Bijou, your grandmamma wants you."
Denyse ran into the house, her silk skirts rustling as she went. She did not even stay to answer young La Balue, who, pointing to Henry de Bracieux as he stood with the light showing up his profile, had just remarked:
"What a handsome man Henry is."