"You are, I am told, a constant guest at Sabine Marsy's receptions?" she said abruptly.
"Yes," replied Lissac. "But I have no great liking for political salons."
"It is a political centre, and yet not, seemingly. It is about to become a scientific one, if one may believe the reporters—Monsieur de Rosas is announced.—By the way, my dear Guy, you still see Monsieur de Rosas!"
While Marianne uttered this name with an indifferent tone, she slightly bent her head in order to scrutinize Guy.
He did not reply at once, seeking first to discover what object Marianne had in speaking to him about De Rosas. In a vague way he surmised that the great Castilian noble counted for something in Marianne's visit.
"I always see him when he is in Paris," he said after a moment's pause.
"Then you will see him very soon, for he will arrive to-morrow."
"Who told you that?"
"The newspapers. You don't read the newspapers, then?—He is returning from the East. Madame Marsy is bent on his narrating his travels, on the occasion of a special soirée. A lecture! Our Rosas must have altered immensely. He was wild enough of old."
"A shy fellow, which is quite different. But," asked Lissac after a moment, "what about Rosas?"