Othmar waited some ten or twelve minutes, then approached his hostess.
‘Duchesse, will you do me the honour to present me to Mdlle. de Valogne?’
She stared at him in astonishment.
‘Certainly—yes; why not?—But how did you know her name? And she is only a child at Sacré Cœur.’
‘Melville told me her sad little story and of all your amiability towards her. Surely she will soon be a very beautiful woman?’
‘Elle n’est pas mal,’ said the Duchess, somewhat irritably. ‘Melville is always romancing, you know; there is nothing to be romantic about; she is destined to the religious life; it was her grandmother’s wish, and is her own. As for presenting you to her, she is only a child; it would not be well to make her think herself in the world. If you would excuse me——’
‘Pray present me, Duchesse,’ he persisted. ‘I assure you I do not eat children; and if she be doomed to take the veil so soon, the world will lose her anyhow. But will you have the heart to cut off all that hair?’
‘You will always have your own way,’ said Madame de Vannes, who knew very well that he did not have it where most he cared; then she took him across to where her young cousin sat, and said, ‘Yseulte, Count Othmar wishes to know you; he is a friend of Monsignor Melville’s.’
The girl made him the same grand curtsy, which she had made before, only a little less low than she had given to the lady. Then she seated herself once more, and waited for him to speak first, as we wait for a royal person to do so.