'
With infinite grace the Chevalier put a knee to the ground, and
kissed my hand.
'Madame will be good enough to excuse my present appearance,' he
said, 'in consideration of its being the only means by which I could
put myself on the path of honour.'
'It is then an evasion?' said my husband gravely.
'My dear Viscount, do not give yourself the airs of a patriarch.
They do not suit with your one-and-twenty years, even though you are
the model of husbands. Tell me, where is your hero?'
'The Duke? He is before Thionville.'
'I shall be at his feet in another day. Tell me how goes the war.
What cities are falling before our arms?'
He asked of victories; M. de Bellaise asked of his sister. 'Oh!
well, well, what do I know?' he answered lightly, as if the matter
were beneath his consideration; and when I inquired about his child,
he actually made a grimace, and indeed he had barely seen her, for
she had been sent out to be nursed at a farmhouse, and he did not
even recollect her name. I shall never forget how he stared, when at
the sound of a little cry my husband opened the door and appeared
with our little Gaspard, now five months old, laughing and springing
in his arms, and feeling for the gold on his uniform. The count had
much the same expression with which I have seen a lady regard me when
I took a caterpillar in my hand.
'Ah! ah!' cried our Chevalier; 'with all his legs and arms too! That
is what comes of marrying an Englishwoman.
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