"Would it be very indiscreet to ask you what you expect?"
"Oh, not indiscreet in the slightest degree, for I can only answer just as I have already answered, I should simply want to love him! I do not care at all about money; I neither understand money nor worship it!" She turned towards her cousin, and said, in conclusion, as she looked up into his face: "Now, I'll tell you, I would agree to a marriage like Bertrade's."
"With another husband," he stammered out.
Very simply and naturally, and without the slightest embarrassment, she said, laughing:
"Oh, dear no! No, I think the husband is quite nice."
M. de Rueille did not answer. He could not help feeling some emotion, in spite of himself, at this idea that Bijou might have cared for him. It seemed to him that the evening air was delicious, and never had the setting sun, which was sinking slowly like a ball of flame into the Loire, appeared more brilliant to him. The little gig was so narrow, that, with every oscillation, his elbow touched the young girl's arm, whilst her soft fair hair, escaping from her large straw hat, kept brushing against his cheek, which began to burn.
Bijou noticed his absent-mindedness.
"It seems to me," she said, laughing, "that you are not listening much to the description of my ideal."
"Oh, yes!"
"Oh, no!—by the bye, have we done all the errands?"