She was darting across to her cousin, but Rueille caught her arm, and said angrily:
"What nonsense! it is perfectly ridiculous!"
Bijou looked at him in amazement, and stammered out:
"It is you who are ridiculous!"
"Oh, yes, of course," he answered, speaking harshly, "it is I who ought to go and sit down, and I am the one who is ridiculous; in fact, I am everything I ought not to be, and I always do everything I ought not to do."
"Whatever is the matter, children?" asked Madame de Bracieux.
M. de Jonzac explained, as he emptied his pipe by tapping it gently against a piece of furniture.
"Heaven have mercy upon us! It is nothing less than Paul quarrelling with Bijou!"
"With Bijou?" exclaimed the old lady, in perfect amazement.
"Paul quarrelling with Bijou!" repeated Madame de Rueille, putting down the newspaper she had been reading, "impossible!"