"I not only permit it, but I insist upon it; for, after all, it is well that I should know something about the friend of my childhood."
I told Madame Dauberny the story that I had previously told her friend. She listened attentively, without moving an eyebrow. Her impassiveness frightened me. But when I had finished, she shook her head and smiled slightly, murmuring:
"It was a little risqué! So your friend is at the other ball?"
"Yes, madame."
"And your friend's name is——?"
"Balloquet."
"What does he do?"
"He is a doctor."
"There's no great crime in all this, provided that you really are, as you say, an honorable man."
"Ah, madame!—this suspicion——"