"I shall be too busy——"
"After the carillon, then! Promise, Maryette!"
"And sit up there alone with you in the dark for an hour? Ma foi! How amusing!" She laughed in pretty derision. "I shall not even be able to blow bubbles!"
Watching her pouting face intently, he said:
"Suppose I bring some toy balloons for you[pg 336] to fly from the clock tower? Would that amuse you—you beautiful, perverse child?"
"Little toy balloons!" she echoed, enchanted. "What pleasure to set them afloat from the belfry! Do you really promise to bring me some little toy balloons to fly?"
"Yes. But you must promise not to speak about it to anybody."
"Why?"
"Because the gendarmes wouldn't let us fly any balloons."
"You mean that they might think me a spy?" she inquired naïvely.