‘It must be the girl who was in the boat,’ said Lady Brancepeth. ‘She was very handsome.’
Geraldine looked at Madame Napraxine with curiosity, eagerness, and gratification.
‘Who told you, Platon?’ she asked, with a certain impatience in her voice.
‘Three of them told me; Melville first, then Cri-Cri herself, in the Salle de Jeu. She did not seem to know whether to be affronted or pleased. She said the whole thing was a great surprise, but that she could not refuse Othmar; she declared that her projects were all upset, that her young cousin had been always destined to the religious life; that she regretted to have her turned from her vocation; in short, she talked a great deal of nonsense, but the upshot of it all was that Baron Fritz had made formal proposals, and that she had accepted them. In the gardens, coming away, I met the Baron himself; he was in a state of ecstasy; all he cares for is the perpetuation of the name of Othmar; but he declares that Mademoiselle de Valogne is everything he could desire, that she was excessively timid, and scarcely spoke a word when they allowed him to see her for five minutes, but that it was a very graceful timidity, and full of feeling.’
‘Baron Fritz in the operatic rôle of Padrone d’Amore is infinitely droll,’ said Nadine, with a little cold laugh.
‘Of course Othmar was obliged to marry some time,’ continued Napraxine, who did not easily abandon a subject when one pleased him. ‘And he is—how old is he?—I saw the Baron as I left; he is delighted. He says the poor child fainted when they told her she was to be saved from a religious life.’
‘My dear Platon,’ said his wife impatiently, ‘ we can read Daudet or Henri Greville when we want this sort of thing. Pray, spare us. I hope Baron Fritz explained to her that all she is wanted for is to continue a race of Croatian money-lenders which he considers the pivot of the world. If she fail in doing that he will counsel a divorce, à la Bonaparte.’
‘He might marry an archduchess,’ said one of the diplomatists. ‘Surely, it is throwing himself away.’
‘It must be for love,’ said Geraldine, with an ironical smile.