So Caroline wished to see me again; her fiery wrath against me was allayed; doubtless it was because the sentiment that had given birth to that wrath had also vanished. But why had she lost her former playful humor? Upon my word, I was very conceited to think that it had anything to do with me. Might not Mademoiselle Derbin have some heartache, or some secret, with which I was absolutely unconnected? I would have been glad to know if she had seen Madame Blémont again before leaving Mont-d’Or. However, I was not sorry for the meeting. When Ernest was at work, it was impossible to talk with him; and his wife was constantly busy with her children and with her household cares. So I thought that it would be pleasant to go sometimes to Monsieur Roquencourt’s for a chat. At dinner I informed my hosts of our meeting. “If they are pleasant people, ask them to come to see us,” said Ernest. I noticed that his wife did not second that invitation. I had said that Caroline was lovely, and wives sometimes dread the visit of a lovely person; Marguerite was a wife now. “My friend,” she said, “if they are people with twenty-five thousand francs a year and a carriage, I shall never dare to receive them.” “Why not, pray, my dear love? I am an author, and genius goes before wealth. Isn’t that so, Henri?” “It ought to be so, at all events.” “But, my dear, I am not an author, I have no genius----” “That doesn’t follow, my dear love; one is often found without the other.” “At all events, I shall not dare, or I shall not be able--you yourself say that we must not make acquaintances which will entail expense.” It seemed to me that Marguerite was getting mixed up; I fancied that I could see her making signals to her husband; but he was trying to compose the concluding lines of a quatrain, and was not listening to Marguerite. I comforted the little woman by telling her that she was under no obligation to receive Monsieur Roquencourt and his niece. “But you will go to see them?” she asked. “Yes, I don’t see what should prevent me.” “No, of course not. But you see, according to what I have heard of this young lady, who does not choose to marry, I have an idea that she is a flirt.” “Even if that were so, so long as her company is agreeable, I do not see that I have anything to fear.” Madame Ernest said no more; I saw plainly that she was not pleased with her new neighbor, and I could not imagine the reason; I did not propose that that should prevent me from going to see the new arrivals.