"Not the least bit in the world! She has never tried even to deceive me on that point. 'Good-morning! Good-night! What a fine day it is.'--that's the sort of palpitating dialogue which goes on every day between us. You see, therefore, that you have no reason to have a spite against me?"
"I beg your pardon, Jean, my dear fellow, but I firmly believed that you were the great favourite."
M. de Rueille broke off suddenly, and appeared to be straining his ears.
Bijou was just coming out of the stable, followed, of course, by Pierrot.
She tripped daintily across towards the two men, examining them in her calm, smiling way.
"Whatever's the matter with you both?" she asked; "you look--I don't know how!"
BIJOU was in the dining-room, arranging the flowers on the table for dinner, whilst in the butler's pantry the servants were polishing up the large silver dishes until they shone brilliantly.
"Get into your coat!" said the butler to the footman; "there's a carriage coming slowly up the avenue. Oh, you've got plenty of time, it isn't here yet."
"Whose carriage is it?" said the footman, looking through the window.
"I don't know it; it's a fine-looking turn-out, anyhow. It might very well be the owner of The Norinière."
"Why, yes, an awful lot; he's got about sixteen thousand a year."
"My wife was kitchen-maid at his place before I married her--a good master he is, always pleasant, and not at all near--you'd better start now if you want to get to the steps before he's there."
A minute before, Bijou, finding that she was short of flowers, had run out into the garden, and, springing across the path, had pushed her way into the middle of a rose-bed, and was now cutting away mercilessly. She was so absorbed that she did not hear the carriage, which was coming up the drive, and which went round the lawn, and pulled up in front of the stone steps. When at last she did happen to look up, she saw, a few steps away from her, a tall gentleman standing gazing at her with a most rapturous expression.
The fact was that Bijou, in her cotton dress, with wide pink stripes, and her little apron trimmed with Valenciennes, was really very pretty to look at, foraging about amongst the flowers.
When she discovered that she was being gazed at in this way, her tea-rose complexion took a deeper tint, and she looked confused and embarrassed, as she stood there facing the gentleman, who was still contemplating her without saying a word.