"At any rate, what I do know I may not tell."
"But, after all, what does she want with a divorce? What reason could she give? Is she not as free as a woman need wish to be? Will she be any freer when she hasn't a husband? Frantz, your brother must have told you something of all this."
"Not a word," said the worthy Frantz. "Five minutes ago I knew no more about it than you did. The deuce! The princess no doubt has got a divorce because she is more and more infatuated with this fine fellow here."
"My dear," said Mme. Meyrin, shocked.
"Oh, we need not be so particular between ourselves. I dare say you know well enough what is what in the matter. Very likely she wants to marry Paul."
"Marry Paul!" exclaimed the musician's wife, furious because her husband spoke of the thing in laughing at it.
The painter, ill at ease during the discussion, rose from the table, and was making off.
But there was no escaping Mme. Meyrin in this way.
"Come, don't run away like that," she said, catching her brother-in-law by the arm. "You know very well that all this is of the greatest interest to us. If the princess is getting a divorce that she may marry you, you must have agreed to marry her."
"It is no use asking me questions," said the young man, freeing himself.