"Then you advise me to marry?"
"If the woman is worthy of you."
Goutran had begun this conversation in a gay, familiar tone, but the gravity of Esperance influenced him, and he continued more seriously, "I wished to consult you, because I knew you to be a man who weighed such matters seriously. You noticed a young lady, to-night—but what is the matter?"
Esperance had started. "It is nothing, my foot slipped. And this young lady?"
"The pretty blonde is the one I mean."
"Oh!" answered Esperance, with a sigh of relief, "I congratulate you, most warmly. You love her?"
"I hardly know. I am attracted by her, I admire her beauty, the brilliancy of her eyes, her figure and her manner. Is this love?"
"I have no experience in such matters, you know."
"But you have instinct, which is worth ten times as much as experience. Carmen is an adorable creature, and when I am with her I can think of no one else. Twenty times this evening the decisive words were on my lips."
"And why did you not speak?"