"I separated them, carrying Gretchen back at once to her carriage."
"Then now I understand the chill which seemed to be over us all dinner-time. So, after I went out, you had a heavy downfall?"
"Pfuiii!" my uncle began again.
This last sigh seemed to lose itself in such a vista of painful souvenirs, that the whole of Théramène's narrative would certainly have taken less time to tell. I proceeded as quickly as I could, foreseeing that my intervention would be necessary.
"Had I not better run over to my aunt Gretchen's?" I asked him.
"Yes, I certainly think you had. I promised that, except in case of Ernest's illness proving serious, they should all leave Paris to-morrow! You may still have time to arrange that this evening," he added, looking at the clock.
"All right, I'm off!" I replied, rising up.
As I was about to go out, he called me back.
"Ah! above all," he continued sharply, "don't forget to tell Eudoxia to-morrow that it is you who have undertaken this business, and that as for me, I have not stirred from here!"
"That's quite understood, uncle," I answered, laughing to myself at the blue funk he was in.