Victorine shrugged, rather impatiently.
"Well—your hand, Madame la Maréchale?" repeated the Marquis, gently, abandoning the pleasantry.
"I greatly regret, monsieur, that I am already engaged."
"Indeed! To whom? Shall I seek your recreant knight?"
"He is here," responded Victorine, calmly. "This black domino has my hand."
De Bernis started.
"Then, monsieur, you should claim it at once to avoid further mistake!" observed the Marquis, rather irritably. And, bowing to the lady, he turned upon his heel and walked away.
Mme. de Coigny and the abbé faced each other. Victorine did not speak. De Bernis, after a moment, did so from necessity. "Madame has done me the honor to make me a convenience. Does she wish, in reality, to dance?"
"It has been your custom, François, to dance with me during the evening. Can you not recall the time when you begrudged me a single minuet, a single promenade, with another?"
"One may remember many useless things, madame." If the Fates gave opportunity so soon, de Bernis was not the man to refuse to take it. If he broke with her to-night, the morrow would be free.