"'Oh! when the fancy takes me to be unhappy there'll be no lack of men,' she said, laughing.
"She recovered instantly from her emotion, whatever it was; for all women, from the great lady to the chambermaid of an inn, have a self-possession of their own.
"'You are fresh enough and taking enough to please a lover,' I said, watching her. 'But tell me, Rosalie, why did you take a place at an inn after you left Madame de Merret? Didn't she leave you an annuity?'
"'Oh, yes, she did. But, monsieur, my place is the best in all Vendôme.'
"This answer was evidently what judges and lawyers call 'dilatory.' Rosalie's position in this romantic history was like that of a square on a checkerboard; she was at the very centre, as it were, of its truth and its interest; she seemed to me to be tied into the knot of it. The last chapter of the tale was in her, and, from the moment that I realized this, Rosalie became to me an object of attraction. By dint of studying the girl I came to find in her, as we do in every woman whom we make a principal object of our attention, that she had a host of good qualities. She was clean, and careful of herself, and therefore handsome. Some two or three weeks after the notary's visit I said to her, suddenly: 'Tell me all you know about Madame de Merret.'
"'Oh, no!' she replied, in a tone of terror, 'don't ask me that, monsieur.'
"I persisted in urging her. Her pretty face darkened, her bright colour faded, her eyes lost their innocent, liquid light.
"'Well!' she said, after a pause, 'if you will have it so, I will tell you; but keep the secret.'
"'I'll keep it with the faithfulness of a thief, which is the most loyal to be found anywhere.'
"'If it is the same to you, monsieur, I'd rather you kept it with your own.'