"Oh, no! not at all!"
"Tell me, do you know Madame Dermont? She is a friend of Mademoiselle Juliette, I believe?"
"Madame Dermont? Yes; I met her several times at Juliette's before Monsieur Mirotaine had forbidden me to talk with his daughter. She's a most attractive woman. Juliette has no better friend. They tell each other their joys and their sorrows, and neither of them has any secrets from the other. She knows that Juliette loves me; and if she could do anything to help us, she would ask nothing better. But she hasn't the power, poor woman! She has had a heap of trouble of her own."
"Who? Nathalie?—I mean Madame Dermont. What trouble? She never mentioned it to me."
"Do you know her, then?"
"Yes, a little. I go to her house sometimes. But this trouble of hers? Tell me about it, I beg you, dear old Lucien!"
"I heard about it from Juliette, to whom, as I just told you, Madame Dermont confides all her sorrows."
"But these troubles of hers? these troubles? for God's sake, come to the point!"
Lucien looked at Adhémar with a smile, as he replied:
"How deeply interested you seem to be in anything that concerns that young woman! Can it be, by any chance——"