At nine o'clock, after coffee had been served, Madame de Serizy
kissed her niece on the forehead, pressed her hand, and went away,
taking Adam with her and leaving the Marquis de Ronquerolles and the
Marquis du Rouvre, who soon followed. Paz and Clementine were alone
together.
"I will leave you now, madame," said Thaddeus. "You will of course
rejoin them at the Opera?"
"No," she answered, "I don't like dancing, and they give an odious
ballet to-night 'La Revolte au Serail.'"
There was a moment's silence.
"Two years ago Adam would not have gone to the Opera without me," said
Clementine, not looking at Paz.
"He loves you madly," replied Thaddeus.
"Yes, and because he loves me madly he is all the more likely not to
love me to-morrow," said the countess.
"How inexplicable Parisian women are!" exclaimed Thaddeus. "When they
are loved to madness they want to be loved reasonably: and when they
are loved reasonably they reproach a man for not loving them at all."
"And they are quite right. Thaddeus," she went on, smiling, "I know
Adam well; I am not angry with him; he is volatile and above all grand
seigneur. He will always be content to have me as his wife and he will
never oppose any of my tastes, but--"
"Where is the marriage in which there are no 'buts'?" said Thaddeus,
gently, trying to give another direction to Clementine's mind.
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