"His name! Faith! I forgot to ask that. But you must know perfectly well whom I mean. Will you say that you don't know a colonel?"
"Several colonels have called on my uncle, but——"
"Ah! several of them—you admit it now."
"Who told you, monsieur, that I am going to be married?"
"Someone who is absolutely certain of it: my father, who learned it from your uncle."
"From my uncle? Why, I can't understand this at all."
"You pretend not to understand; but, I doubt not, you are impatiently waiting for your future husband's arrival."
Constance reflected for some little time, then replied in a tone which she struggled to make indifferent:
"Really, monsieur, I am very much surprised by what you have told me; but, after all, suppose it to be true that I am to be married—how does it concern you? I imagine that it is a matter of the utmost indifference to you."
"Ah! you think that, do you? You are quite right, mademoiselle; of course, it cannot make any difference to me."