"They are bewitching, but suppose a sweet smile went with them?"
She rose from her seat, and in a colder, more serious manner she said:
"No, you will never see me, never know me, and never will you learn anything about me."
Léon stood as though petrified.
"Did one ever hear of such inconceivable caprice? It is useless, madame, for me to trouble you any longer. I see you are anxious to rejoin your friends. We must look for them."
She interrupted him, not noticing his anger.
"Léon de Préval, that's your name, isn't it," she said dreamily, "captain of the Sixth Horse? Do you expect to stay long in the city?"
"What can that matter to you, cruel one, since you do not mean to see me ever again?"
"But what makes you think I don't mean to see you again? How little it takes to throw these wiseacres off their balance! I am, on the contrary, so determined to see you again that—"
"Mon Dieu, my dear, what ever has become of you?" cried a woman's voice behind them. "We have been hunting for you these two hours past."