"I was writing to my brother," he said, following the direction of her eyes, "and instead of telling him about my pupil, and my occupations, and, in short, about such things as, in my position of life, I ought to confine myself to, I have only told him about you." "I was looking at your name," she answered, pointing with her rosy finger to the signature; "Fred--it is a name I am fond of; I gave it to my little godchild, the youngest of Bertrade's children." She seemed to be looking far away through the open window as she repeated very gently: "Fred!" And then passing her little hand over her forehead, and walking towards the door, she said abruptly: "And this dinner--and my flowers for the table,--why, the _menus_ are not written yet, and it is five o'clock!" And then, as the poor fellow looked stupefied and did not attempt to move, she went on: "It's settled about this evening, is it not? I shall have your place laid?" He answered, in a vague, bewildered way, coming gradually to himself again: "Amongst all the others in dress-coats, I shall cut the most ridiculous figure." "Oh, no,--nothing of the kind! Besides, they will not all be in dress-coats. First of all, there is M. de Clagny in a frock-coat; and then M. de Bernes, who is afraid of meeting his General, and so is always arrayed in his uniform: then the abbe in his cassock," and with a laugh she concluded: "That makes three of them who will not be in dress-coats!" * * * * * As she was leaving the schoolroom, she ran against Henry de Bracieux, who was coming towards her in the corridor. "Well, I never!" he exclaimed, in surprise. "What are you doing here?" "And you?" "I? Why, I was going back to my room." "And I was coming away from Pierrot's." "Pierrot is in the garden." "I did not know, and I had something to say to him." "To him?" asked the young man suspiciously, and almost aggressively, "or to M. Giraud?" Without appearing to notice her cousin's singular attitude towards her, she answered, in a docile way: "To him, so that he might repeat it to M. Giraud, but as he was not there----" "It is to Giraud that you have----" "Given grandmamma's message. Yes," and then, with an innocent expression in her eyes, she asked: "Why does it interest you so much to know whether I gave this message to the one rather than to the other?" He replied, in a joking tone, but with some embarrassment: "Because I am inquisitive, probably; and the proof that I am inquisitive is that I should like to know what this message was." "Grandmamma commissioned me to tell M. Giraud, who has no dress-coat----" "No dress-coat--Giraud?" "No." "Not a dress-coat at all?" "There, you say just what I did. No, not a dress-coat of any description! He had sent word that he would not dine with us; and then, as M. de Clagny is staying to dinner, and he is in a frock-coat, I was going to tell Pierrot, so that he could let M. Giraud know. Do you understand now?"