"Oh, what fun!" exclaimed Bijou, delighted. "I have never been on a mail-coach; you don't mind, grandmamma?"
Madame de Bracieux seemed rather undecided.
"Well, I don't know, Bijou dear; you see at Pont-sur-Loire you will be noticed very much perched up there, and for two young girls I don't know whether it is quite the thing—"
"Oh, grandmamma," protested Bijou, "not the thing! and with M. de Clagny there!"
"Yes, with me," put in the count, with emphasis, his face suddenly clouding over, "there is no danger; I am safe enough."
"Yes, certainly," replied Madame de Bracieux with evident sincerity; "but at Pont-sur-Loire everyone is so fond of gossip and scandal."
"Oh, grandmamma," Bijou said, in a beseeching tone, "don't deprive us of a treat, which you don't see any harm in whatever yourself, just because of the Pont-sur-Loire people, about whom you do not care at all."
"Yes, you are right. Go, then, children, as you want to, for, as you say, there is no harm whatever in amusing yourselves in that way."
"Is there any room for me?" asked M. de Rueille.
"For you, and some more of you," answered M. de Clagny; "we are only six at present."