"Especially?"
"Especially before you!"
Bijou shrugged her shoulders, and ran away down the long corridor.
VI.
Although Bijou had superintended the laying of the cloth, and had herself attended to the flowers, the service, and the menus, she was ready for dinner before anyone else.
Carrying in her arms an enormous bunch of roses, she entered the drawing-room just as the marchioness had gone upstairs to dress.
She was so much taken up with arranging her flowers on a side-table that she did not see M. de Clagny, who was watching her attentively as she came and went, with the pretty, graceful movements of a bird as it flies backwards and forwards before finally perching itself.
At length, however, he spoke, and the sound of his voice made Denyse start.