"That I have never seen Bijou in Paris? I come so regularly on your day."
"Yes, but you always come very early, at an hour when she is never there, and then for the last sixteen years you have never dined with us."
"I never dine out anywhere, you know; but you have never spoken of Bijou, never told me anything about her."
"Because you have never asked me about her."
"I had forgotten about her, to tell the truth, the tiny, baby-child that I saw so little of, and yet just now, when I saw a delicious girl emerging from a rose-bed, I hadn't the slightest hesitation, had I, mademoiselle?" and then correcting himself, he added, laughing: "had I, Bijou?"
"Yes, that's true! M. de Clagny asked me at once if I were not Denyse de Courtaix——and I, too, knew at once who he was; I had heard so much about him that I seemed to know him in my imagination, and, it's very odd—" She broke off suddenly, and then after gazing thoughtfully at the count, she added: "I knew him in my imagination just as he is in reality."
"A very old man," said Clagny, with a kind of sad playfulness.
"No!" replied Bijou, evidently sincere, "a very handsome man!" And then abruptly breaking off, she said: "And Uncle Alexis has not appeared yet; they have rung the bell with all their might in vain, for he doesn't come; I'll go and find him!"
She was hurrying away when the marchioness called her back:
"Stop a minute!—have another place laid at table. You will dine with us, Clagny?"