"We had so much china, dear——"
"But this was the one I asked you to give me for my own—however, listen. The motto was:—
"Mon âme â Dieu,
Ma vie au Roi,
Mon coeur aux Dames,
L'honneur pour moi."
"Paul noticed it one day, and turned round and said, 'That's splendid,'—and read it again. That was when he first came. And afterwards, when things were getting very bad, I came upon him standing in front of the mantelpiece, staring at the jug. I rather liked it myself, but I didn't see it as he did, for on that dreadful day," she looked down, even when it was only Sue, she looked down—"when Paul saved me from myself——"
"When you were too ill to know what you were doing, darling."
"He looked at me and said with a sort of smile, 'L'honneur pour moi.' Sue?"
Sue looked attention.
"You know how poor Maud bored us—I mean how she insisted on Paul's religion as if it were something which gave him a sort of cachet—something quite over our heads?—and how father—oh, Sue, I must say it—do you remember how father once shut her up by declaring that Paul was too much of a gentleman to introduce unpleasant subjects? It was only father's way, you know. He didn't mean any harm, and I do think, don't you, that father was changed a little, that he was different those last few weeks? He said to me once: 'There's more in it than you think'. Anyway, Sue, he did like and admire Paul."
"Yes—yes, he did."
"Now I want to say something," Leo changed the subject, which each felt to be a sad one. "Sue, what really—what I shall never forget, is, that when the worst moment of all came, when Paul and I were together, all alone, and I was ready—oh, I was ready to fall into his arms if he had held out his little finger—he didn't hold it. He stood there like a statue. And I know, I know what held him back. If all the world had called Paul a good man, and he had preached goodness from morning to night, it wouldn't have had the least effect, but when he said 'L'honneur pour moi'"—her tears overflowed, and Sue wept likewise....