She was right. Her conduct seemed to me now to be perfectly natural, or, at all events, excusable. Frédérique's head no longer rested on my shoulder: she sat up and passed her hand across her forehead, saying:
"I believe it is time for us to think of separating. I feel a little tired, my friend. You will go home with Herr von Brunzbrack, will you not? He is a little—tipsy, and I should be sorry if anything happened to him. And, although he has his carriage here, he is quite capable of refusing to go home."
"Yes, yes; I will put him in the hands of his servants. But just a moment; why need we separate so soon?"
"The clock has just struck half-past three."
"Suppose it has? what does the time matter, when we are so comfortable and our own masters?"
"Oh! as far as that goes, nobody is more uncontrolled than I am now. Stay on, if you choose. But, if you do, you must tell me something, confide in me. Do you fence?"
"Yes; why?"
"Because, if you do, you must come here and fence with me; it's a form of exercise that I am very fond of."
"What! do you really know how to handle a foil?"
"And very prettily too, I flatter myself. I told you that I was a man; so, of course, I have learned the things that go to perfect a man's education."