"Say by overwhelming admiration."
"As you please But it is here, Aunt Louise, that my interrogation will begin. Why and how were you there? Where had you dined, Gontran?"
"At the club."
"And what did you intend to do after dinner? Come to Mme. de Vernieux's?"
"No; Robert d'Aigremont and I had meant to go to the Bouffes-Parisiens."
"You did not go? Why?"
"We had telephoned from the club to have a box; all were sold—"
"So you said to Robert—"
"I said to Robert, 'Let's play bezique;' and I was beaten by one of those streaks of bad luck—34,000 points in a dozen games—so thoroughly that towards half-past ten I thought that bezique had lasted long enough—"
"And so—"