And that is why they have left us, and why no servant
has appeared. Ah! they make me pay dearly for the hospitality
they have given me!" As she spoke the tears started from her eyes
and glistened on her long lashes. "Whom did you fancy you were
speaking to?" she added. "Would you have been so audacious if I
had a father or a brother to resent your insults?"
The lieutenant started as if he had been lashed with a whip. "Ah!
you are severe!" he exclaimed.
And a happy inspiration entering his mind, he continued: "A man
does not insult a woman, mademoiselle, when, while telling her
that he loves her and thinks her beautiful, he offers her his name
and life."
Mademoiselle Marguerite shrugged her shoulders ironically, and
remained for a moment silent. She was very proud, and her pride
had been cruelly wounded; but reason told her that a continuation
of this scene would render a prolonged sojourn in the General's
house impossible; and where could she go, without exciting
malevolent remarks? Whom could she ask an asylum of? Still this
consideration alone would not have sufficed to silence her. But
she remembered that a quarrel and a rupture with the Fondeges
would certainly imperil the success of her plans. "So I will
swallow even this affront," she said to herself; and then in a
tone of melancholy bitterness, she remarked, aloud: "A man cannot
set a very high value on his name when he offers it to a woman
whom he knows absolutely nothing about.
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