“Ah,” said Isabelle, deeply interested. “But they don’t want us for that.”
“Wait a minute. Alice knows nothing about it. If she knew, she wouldn’t go.”
“Stupid creature! But you are quite right. Nothing about her astonishes me any more. She is capable of anything foolish.”
“Say rather, of anything timid. She has a beautiful timid soul.”
“I should rather say she is careful. But she is rich. She can choose her own husband. In these days that is a rare luxury. How could she help liking Captain Guibert better than that stupid, arrogant de Marthenay? I like him very much, almost as much as I like you. Only he makes me afraid. I always think he is going to scold me.”
“Don’t you deserve it?”
“I do deserve it. Scold me if you like, but not too much! The dragoon is very stupid. And when a man is that, he is unbearable.”
Madame Dulaurens was hovering round now and came up to their little retreat, thinking that this tête-à-tête had lasted quite long enough.
“Alice is not with you?” she asked.
“She has just gone out of the drawing-room, Madame Dulaurens. There she is, coming back.”