"Not now," said Franzius. "I cannot tell you now. To-morrow I will call on you at your house in the Place Vendôme. Then I will tell you." That was all I could get from him; and off he went, having first wrung both my hands, the tears running down his face so that the passers-by turned to look and wonder at him. "Come early to-morrow," I called out after him as he went. Then I pursued my way home to the Place Vendôme, wondering at the meaning of what I had seen and troubled at heart. CHAPTER XXVIII THE OLD COAT Next morning I sent Joubert to my guardian's apartments with a message craving an interview. It was nine o'clock, and the old gentleman received me in his dressing-room and in his dressing-gown. Beril had just shaved him, and he was examining his rubicund, jovial face in a hand-mirror. The place smelt of Parma violets and shaving-soap. It was like the dressing-room of a duchess, so elaborate were the fittings and so complex the manicure instruments and toilet arrangements set out on the dressing-table. "Leave me, Beril," said the old gentleman, when he had made a little bow to my reflection in the big mirror facing him. Then, taking up a tooth instrument--for, like M. Chateaubriand, he kept on his toilet-table a set of dental instruments with which he doctored his own pearly teeth--he motioned me to take a seat and proceed. "I have come this morning, monsieur, to place my position before you and to tell you of a serious step in life which I have decided to take." "Yes?" replied the Vicomte, tenderly tapping with the little steel instrument on a front tooth, as though he were questioning it as to its health. "You told me once that I was getting myself into a difficult position. Well, as a matter of fact----" "You have?" "Yes, monsieur." Then I told him everything. When I had finished, the old gentleman put away the tooth instrument, folded his dressing-gown more closely round him, and examined contemplatively his hands, of which he was very proud. "The only thing that would have surprised me," said he at last, "would have been if all this had not occurred. Well, now, let us make the best of it. We will assure her future, and she will forget." "Monsieur, I am this morning about to offer Mademoiselle Feliciani my hand in marriage." My guardian, who had been attending to his left-hand little finger with an ivory polisher, turned in his chair and looked at me. He saw I was in earnest. The blow was severe, yet his power of restraint was so great that his face did not alter. Only the hand which held the ivory manicure instrument trembled slightly. "You have decided on this step?" "Absolutely, monsieur." "You know, of course, it will mean your social ruin, and, as you do not love the girl, the ruin of your happiness?" "I am aware of all that, monsieur--bitterly." My guardian sighed, rubbed his chin softly, and, for a moment, seemed plunged in a profound reverie.