"Very good!" cried the countess, "this last point is all that is necessary. I thank you for your delicacy, which makes it possible for me not to return your visits; but as to the other point, I do not agree with you. You will walk in my garden and you will come to see me." "Perhaps it would be better that I should not come." "No, no," replied Julie, earnestly, "you must come, I insist upon it! and, if you don't come, I shall be obliged to go to fetch you and knock at your window again, which will compromise me. Tell me," she added with a smile, "if you wish me to _ruin_ myself for you? I warn you that I am capable of it." Madame Thierry could not resist the fascination of this artless generosity. She yielded, making a mental vow that she would fly to the other end of Paris, if her presentiment of Julien's passion proved not to be a dream of her maternal imagination. "Now," said the countess, "let us arrange the conditions of our intercourse, in order to put an end to all danger of evil-speaking. The pavilion has only four windows looking on my garden. The two lower ones--I do not know the arrangement of the rooms." "The two lower ones are in the room which my son uses as a studio and I as a salon. We always sit there; but the lower sash, with four panes of ground glass, is stationary, and we open only the upper sashes; but they are often open at this season." "Then you cannot look into my house, as I was told. But that sash with the ground glass was not stationary yesterday; it was partly open." "True, madame la comtesse; there was a broken pane which you may have noticed." "No; my sight is bad, consequently I don't look very closely." "For that reason I had to open that sash, a very unusual thing. But it was repaired and fastened again this morning. Light from below would be very inconvenient for my son in his painting, and he stretches a green cloth over the window on the inside. So he would have to stand on a chair to look into your garden, and, as he is a serious-minded man, and not an ill-taught schoolboy----" "Very well, very well! My mind is at rest concerning the lower floor. The windows above----" "Are in my bedroom. My son's room looks on the street." "And he never sits in your room? No one in my garden will ever see a man at your windows?" "It never has happened and never will happen. I will answer for it." "Nor will he ever come to the garden door, even for an instant? You will warn him." "Be perfectly at ease in that respect. My son is a man of honor." "I do not doubt it. Commend my honor to him, and let us say no more about him; that is to say let us say no more about me, for to forbid you to speak of him would be very cruel. I know that he is your pride and your joy, and I congratulate you."