"A very old man," said Clagny, with a kind of sad playfulness.
"No!" replied Bijou, evidently sincere, "a very handsome man!" And then abruptly breaking off, she said: "And Uncle Alexis has not appeared yet; they have rung the bell with all their might in vain, for he doesn't come; I'll go and find him!"
She was hurrying away when the marchioness called her back:
"Stop a minute!--have another place laid at table. You will dine with us, Clagny?"
"Oh, but I have; I am just expecting some friends of yours."
"And I am a regular bear, for I do not even dine with my friends; and then, too, in this get-up--"
"Your get-up is all right, and, besides, there is time to send to The Norinière for your coat if you particularly care to have it."
Bijou approached, and said, in a coaxing way:
"You will stay--and do you know what would be very, very nice of you? well, it would be to stay just as you are, without your dress-coat."
"Why do you insist, Bijou, if it annoys him to stay without dressing?" asked the marchioness.
"Because, grandmamma, if M. de Clagny were to dine without his dress-coat, M. Giraud could, too; and otherwise he will have to dine all by himself in his room."
"Why, it's very simple. M. Giraud has no dress-coat; he hasn't one at all. I got to know it by chance; he told Baptiste just now that he was not very well, and that he should not leave his room this evening, and so, if M. de Clagny would stay just as he is, don't you see, he could, too--M. Giraud, I mean."
"What a good little Bijou you are!" said the marchioness, quite touched; "you think of everyone; you do nothing but find ways of giving pleasure to all."
Denyse was not listening to this. She was waiting for the count to give his consent.
"Would it be a great, great pleasure to you," he asked at length, "if this Monsieur Giraud could dine at table?"
"Then it shall be as you wish. Tell me, though, now, who is this gentleman with whom I am not acquainted, and for whose sake I am consenting to appear as a most ill-bred man?"
"The son of Alexis," said Madame de Bracieux laughing.
"Then the god to whom I am to be sacrificed is M. Giraud, tutor to Pierrot de Jonzac, and he is honoured by the patronage of Mademoiselle Denyse. Thank you, I like to know how things are."