"Let me see them!" said Bijou, holding out her hand.
"Oh, mademoiselle!" cried the tutor, stepping forward, terrified, "please do not insist!" And then in order to explain his own agitation, he added: "They are wretched verses; please let me put them out of sight. I will show you some others which are more worth looking at."
Bijou's hand was still held out, and she stood there waiting, looking very frank and innocent.
"Oh, please, Jean, let me see these all the same; that need not prevent M. Giraud writing some more that we can see, too."
"I cannot show you a letter," replied Jean, handing the paper to the distracted tutor, "and this is a kind of letter, and belongs to the person who wrote it."
"Thank you," stammered out Giraud, thoroughly abashed, "I am much obliged, monsieur." And he at once put the troublesome scrap of paper into his pocket out of sight.
"Pierrot!" called out the marchioness, "give me 'La Bruyère'—you know where it is?"
"What's that?" asked the youth, winking.
"'La Bruyère'?"
"You see," remarked M. de Jonzac, looking at his son with an expression of despair on his face, "he does not even know who 'La Bruyère' is!"