"It's too early; my father would be angry if I should go now."
"But you said——"
"Mon Dieu! you seem to be in a great hurry to go!"
Gustave bit his lips and said no more. Monsieur Batonnin joined him, and said with a smile:
"You don't seem to be doing anything, Monsieur Gustave. Don't you play cards?"
"I don't care for cards, monsieur."
"You prefer to talk with the ladies—I can understand that. You have been travelling, too; and the ladies like to hear about travels. Have you seen any volcanoes?"
"No, monsieur."
And Gustave turned his back on Batonnin, who smiled at his own reflection in a mirror.
The count soon took his hat, and was about to withdraw, without a word, as the custom is in society; but Fanny, who had kept her eyes on him, found an excuse for standing in his path, and said to him in an undertone: