"Ma tante, I do not think of Monsieur de Sabron as dead, you know."
"Well, in the event that he may be, my dear Julia."
"Sometimes," said the girl, drawing near to her aunt and taking the older lady's hand quietly and looking in her eyes, "sometimes, ma tante, you are cruel."
The marquise kissed her and sighed:
"Robert's mother will be so unhappy!"
"But she has never seen me, ma tante."
"She trusts my taste, Julia."
"There should be more than 'taste' in a matter of husband and wife, ma tante."
After a moment, in which the Marquise d'Esclignac gazed at the bougainvillea and wondered how any one could admire its crude and vulgar color, Miss Redmond asked:
"Did you ever think that the Duc de Tremont was in love?"