"And then?" she queried.
"Then—if I think well of it—you shall have a good part."
"Lead?"
"Bigre! I cannot say that. A good part, in Paris!"
"It is a promise?"
"Emphatically—if I think well of your performance."
"Of my next—the very next part I play?"
"Of the very next part you play."
She paused, reflecting. The pause lasted so long that it began to seem to my suspense as if none of us would ever speak again. I took a cigarette, and offered the box, in silence, to de Lavardens. He shook his head without turning it to me, his gaze was riveted on the woman.
"All right," she groaned, "I agree!"