"Lest you should have some reason for not----" "For not marrying, you mean, don't you? A chain--is that what you mean?" Mme. Mauperin nodded and Henri burst out laughing. "Oh, my dear mamma, if I had one, make your mind easy, it should be a polished one. A man who has any respect for himself would not wear any other." "Well, then, tell me about Mlle. Herbault. It was your fault that it all came to nothing." "Mlle. Herbault? The introduction at the Opera with father? Oh, no, it wasn't that. Yes, yes, I remember, the dinner at Mme. Marquisat's, wasn't it--the last one? That was a trap you laid for me. I must say you are sweetly innocent! I was announced: '_Mossieu Henri Mauperin_,' in that grand, important sort of way which being interpreted meant: '_Behold the future husband!_' I found all the candles in the drawing-room lighted up. The mistress of the house, whom I had seen just twice in my life, overpowered me with her smiles; her son, whom I did not know at all, shook hands with me. There was a lady with her daughter in the room, they neither of them appeared to see me. My place at dinner was next the young person, of course; a provincial family, their money placed in farms, simple tastes, etc. I discovered all that before the soup was finished. The mother, on the other side of the table, was keeping watch over us; an impossible sort of mother, in such a get-up! I asked the daughter whether she had seen the 'Prophet' at the Opera. 'Yes, it was superb--and then there was that wonderful effect in the third act. Oh, yes, that effect, that wonderful effect.' She hadn't seen it any more than I had. A fibber to begin with. I entertained myself with keeping her to the subject, and that made her crabby. We went back to the drawing-room and then the hostess began: 'What a pretty dress!' she said to me. 'Did you notice it? Would you believe that Emmeline has had that dress five years. I can remember it. She is so careful--so orderly!' 'All right,' I thought to myself, 'a lot of miserly wretches who mean to take me in.'" "Do you really think so? And yet, from what we were told about them----"