"'It will be no reason when De Vezin asks you,' said he suspiciously.
"'De Vezin is nothing to me.'
"'You carry a gage d'amour from him on your watch-chain at this very minute.'
"Now, wasn't that talk silly? De Vezin had brought me a two-centime piece one day because I said I had never seen one. and I put a hole in it and hung it to my chain. Fred to call that a gage d'amour!
"'Nonsense!' said I.
"'De Vezin thought the same when he saw it there. I took him for a fool, but I see he was right.'
"'Well, now you will see you were both fools,' said I angrily, and I twisted off the coin and threw it from the window.
"'Is only that preposterous notion in the way?' he asked, looking happy again and taking a seat by me.
"I told you how I cried on first entering the cars, and now—would you believe it?—I got terribly embarrassed. It seemed as if everything I did or said made matters worse. I was scarcely able to stammer, 'My aunt—'
"'I will speak to her. Let me put this on your finger until I can replace it by another:' and he slipped off his seal and leaned forward with an entreating look.