"There are no friends where a lovely woman is concerned! Besides, Léodgard is becoming very unamiable of late—you must agree to that."
"Why, he is married, poor dear! and that is quite enough to change a man's expression!"
"Oh! little he cares for all that! Moreover, you are well aware that, although he is married, he lives absolutely as if he were a bachelor! But, I say again, he is no longer the roué, the jovial scapegrace, of the old days; one would say that he had grown fifteen years older; his features are altered, his face is always careworn or gloomy, he has forgotten how to laugh and drink; he must also have forgotten how to love!"
"Ah! do you think so? You may be mistaken. Léodgard always was of a fantastic humor."
"I have known him only as a man who was always laughing and singing!—Give me some hope, Camilla."
"Well! we shall see. The night is young yet. But here are more people coming; I must go to receive them."
The young marquis left Camilla, but he deemed himself sure of his triumph, and his face expressed his delight.
Flavia went to her friend a moment later and whispered:
"So it is the fascinating Sénange whom you have chosen for your victim?"
"Why not he as well as another?"