"I am rather disappointed," said the young girl, "but if we find it is a matter of life and death, ma tante, we will forgive him?"
The Marquise d'Esclignac had invited the Count de Sabron because she had been asked to do so by his colonel, who was an old and valued friend. She had other plans for her niece.
"I feel, my dear," she answered her now, "quite safe in promising that if it is a question of life and death we shall forgive him. I shall see his colonel to-morrow and ask him pointblank."
Miss Redmond rose from the piano and came over to her aunt, for dinner had been announced.
"Well, what do you think," she slipped her hand in her aunt's arm, "really, what do you think could be the reason?"
"Please don't ask me," exclaimed the Marquise d'Esclignac impatiently. "The reasons for young men's caprices are sometimes just as well not inquired into."
If Sabron, smoking in his bachelor quarters, lonely and disappointed, watching with an extraordinary fidelity by his "sick friend," could have seen the two ladies at their grand solitary dinner, his unfilled place between them, he might have felt the picture charming enough to have added to his collection.
CHAPTER IV
THE DOG PAYS
Pitchouné repaid what was given him.