"It doesn't look like it at this moment."
"Pshaw! Monsieur Ménard, Frédéric, although rather sentimental, is made like other men; but we must go and offer him our respects."
"That will disturb him, monsieur le baron."
"Parbleu! as he passes all his days here, he has time enough to make love."
Dubourg and Ménard walked toward the lovers; at the sound of their footsteps, Frédéric turned and saw them. The girl raised her eyes, and, at sight of the two strangers, pressed closer to Frédéric; and hiding her face against her lover's breast, seemed from that vantage-ground to defy all dangers.
"Bravo! my dear Frédéric, bravo!" laughed Dubourg. "I understand now why you get up so early. Upon my word, your conquest is a charming creature, and that little shy manner adds to the piquancy of her features."
The dumb girl, after a swift glance at Dubourg, turned her eyes again toward Frédéric, as if to ask him what it all meant.
Frédéric rose and the girl did the same, clinging to her lover and gazing uneasily at the two strangers; she seemed to fear that they had come to take him from her; but Frédéric reassured her, then kissed her affectionately, and bade her go and wait for him in Marguerite's garden. It was hard for Sister Anne to obey, for she dreaded to leave him; but again Frédéric promised to join her in a moment. The girl pointed to the strangers, and her eyes said:
"You won't go away with them?"
He embraced her again, whereupon she became calmer, and at last went away, not without turning her head many times to look fondly at Frédéric and sadly at the strangers.