Agapit's fingers remained motionless in the bowl of the big pipe that he was filling with tobacco. "Ma foi, but thou art eloquent. What has come over thee?"
"Nothing, nothing," she said, hurriedly, "I only wonder whether he thinks of his fiancée."
"How dost thou know he has a fiancée?"
"I do not know, I guess. Surely, so handsome a young man must belong already to some woman."
"Ah,—probably. Rose, I am glad that thou hast never been a coquette."
"And why should I be one?" she asked, wonderingly.
"Why, thou hast ways,—sly ways, like most women, and thou art meek and gentle, else why do men run after thee, thou little bleating lamb?"
Rose made him no answer beyond a shrug of her shoulders.
"But thou wilt not marry. Is it not so?" he continued, with tremulous eagerness. "It is better for thee to remain single and guard thy child."