“I did not hear you.”
“If you can hear nothing this evening, at any rate you see everything, Monsieur le Baron,” said Madame de Vaudremont, with an air of vexation.
“That young man is displaying a very fine diamond,” the stranger remarked to the Colonel.
“Splendid,” he replied. “The man is the Baron Martial de la Roche-Hugon, one of my most intimate friends.”
“I have to thank you for telling me his name,” she went on; “he seems an agreeable man.”
“Yes, but he is rather fickle.”
“He seems to be on the best terms with the Comtesse de Vaudremont?” said the lady, with an inquiring look at the Colonel.
“On the very best.”
The unknown turned pale.
“Hallo!” thought the soldier, “she is in love with that lucky devil Martial.”