He stopped short where he stood: he had resumed the care of her parasol, her fan, and purse. Her face, as she took in his exposition of his plan for the regeneration of a decayed nobility, was inscrutable. Instead of exclaiming, she stopped to speak a moment to some people who passed, shook hands with the owner of the favorite, and when they were once again alone said to her friend: "Isn't it too delightful! the whole scene? I mean to say, how perfectly they do it all. How thoroughly gay it is, how debonnair, graceful, and _bien compris_. Look at the wonderful color of the _pesage_, and the life of the whole thing! These Latin most thoroughly understand the art of living. You scarcely ever see a care-worn face in France. Look at Jack now! Did you ever see such anxiety as he represents? If Bon Jour is beaten I don't know _what_ will become of him. What shall I do with him?" Bulstrode's interest on this subject was tepid. "Oh, he'll be all right!" he said indifferently. "Take him to the Dublin Horse Fair." And then as though she had not capriciously left the other topic, Mrs. Falconer asked: "Just what _is_ your plan for Molly and her Marquis? May I not know?" And Bulstrode who had never in any way thought out a plan or scheduled a scheme for the wise distribution of the good he intended to do, educated now, so he fondly hoped, by his failures, wiser, he was proud to believe, by several sharp lessons--with no little confidence and something of pride, said to his companion: "I have a ranch out West, you know; a little property I took for a bad debt once. It has turned out to be a great and good piece of luck. That time I was fortunate--" (his tone, was congratulatory and Mrs. Falconer smiled prettily). "I now need a second overseer again--a man of brains, good temper, and physical endurance, who can keep accounts. Experience isn't at all necessary. There's my Englishman there, my Christmas tramp, you recall; he'll show De Presle-Vaulx his duties. It's a good enough berth for any determined chap who has his way to make and an ideal to work for. I purpose to send this Frenchman out on a salary and to see what stuff he's made of. After a year or two, with good sense and push, he will be in a position to ask any girl to be his wife. I'll raise his salary, and if Molly is the girl I take her for, she will help him there." "And his family, Jimmy?" "Damn his family!" risked the aroused Bulstrode. Mrs. Falconer laughed. "Really! It is casual of you! but you don't know them and can't! But they can quite spoil the whole thing as far as Molly is concerned. His tradition and race, his home and all it means to him--why you can't roughly run against all the old conventions like that, my dear man!"