"Did you ever see anybody so gallant?"
"It looks very much as if this woman were making a fool of me!" said Albert to himself.
However, he restrained himself, and, merely glancing at the glass, cried with an affected enthusiasm which closely resembled mockery:
"Oh! it is magnificent! Great God! how beautiful it is! I would like right well to know where monsieur finds such beautiful things!"
The Swede bit his lips, but said nothing.
Madame Baldimer continued to extol the opera glass; and Albert, glancing at the shawl, which lay neglected on a chair, said to himself:
"God! what fools men are sometimes!"
But the conversation languished. Madame Baldimer made but a feeble effort to sustain it. The Swede said a word or two at once, never more than that; and Albert contented himself with ejaculating at intervals:
"Mon Dieu! what an opera glass! it is dazzling!"
Whereupon the count made an imperceptible grimace, and glanced furtively at the young man.