He was silent. Noisettiers was a little place on the Norman coast, which Stefan Brancka had given to her on his marriage; a pleasure-house, with Swiss roofs, Cairene windows, Italian balconies and a Persian court, which was bowered amongst lime-trees and filbert trees, near Villeville, and had been the scene of much riotous midsummer gaiety when she had filled it with Parisians and Russians.
'You are always too good to me,' murmured Sabran, in the meaningless compliment of usage, as other men entered her box. But she knew by the coldness of his eyes, by the slightness of his smile, that he would no more go to Noisettiers than to Romaris.
'If Wanda had only remained here,' she thought angrily, opening and shutting her tortoiseshell fan, 'he would have done whatever I had chosen. Men are mere children; thwart them and they pine.
'I suppose,' she said aloud to him, 'you will have your own house-parties at Hohenszalras, as stiff as a minuet, crammed with grand dukes and grand duchesses, all decorum and dignity, all ennui and etiquette? By-the-by, are you restored again to the Emperor's good graces?'
'It is not likely that I shall be so,' replied Sabran, who always dreaded the subject. 'If ever I be so fortunate I shall owe it to the influence Wanda possesses.'
'Why did you offend him?' she said, bending her inquisitive glance upon him.
'All sovereigns are offended when not obeyed. We have discussed this so often. Need we discuss it again in a theatre?'
'You are very impenetrable,' she said. 'Your rule of conduct must follow the lines of M. de. Nothomb's 'il ne faut jamais se brouiller, ni se familiariser, avec qui que ce soit: c'est le secret de durer.'
'M. de Nothomb only meant his rule to apply to his own sex,' replied Sabran. 'With yours, unless a man be either familiarisé or brouillé, his life must be dull and his experience small.'
'Which will you be with me?' she said, with significance. 'The choice is open.'