"No."
After a short silence Madame de Rueille began again:
"I showed grandmamma the doctor's letter; she is very sorry about our going away. She adores the children, and then, too, she likes to have the house full at Bracieux."
"And she let herself be gulled with this story about Marcel's nervous condition? I am surprised at that; she is so sharp!"
"If she was not gulled, as you call it, she allowed me to think that she was. I shall see you again presently: I must get ready for breakfast."
M. de Rueille went up to his wife, and asked, in a half-timid way:
"You are angry with me about it?"
"I? why should I be angry about what you cannot help? You are in the same situation as Jean, M. Giraud, Henry, the accompaniment professor, Pierrot, and others that we don't know of, not to speak of the abbé, who, at present, is always to be found somewhere round about where Bijou is."
"Oh!"
"It's perfectly true; the only thing is that, as far as he is concerned, he is unconscious of it. Without understanding the why and wherefore, he, too, is captivated by Bijou's charms just the same as all the others who come near her. I am quite sure that he, too, will be unhappy about going away from here; but he will not be able to explain to himself even the cause of his unhappiness. Ah! there's the bell; I shall never be ready; you had better go on down."