"I find nothing 'dreadful' about her," said Vauquelin a shade sharply. "On the contrary, it--I suppose some people might find it rather fascinating. I merely observe that she is different from any other girl that I have met. What's the matter with her stepfather?" "She tells me he never stops talking." "His topics must be pretty catholic. This jeune fille from the country appears to know more of politics, finance, society, and sport than I, who have lived in Paris forty-five years." "How you do exaggerate, papa!" rippled Blanche reprovingly. "At any rate, I do not exaggerate the years," sighed Vauquelin. "Well, if she is not happy at home, why not ask her to stay with us for _two_ months? She is not in my way, you know." But mademoiselle Paumelle declared that it would be impossible for her to prolong her visit. Blanche reported this to him with wistful lips, and he said, "I'll see if _I_ can persuade her--I will speak to her about it in the morning when you go to take your music-lesson." On the morrow, "Blanche tells me that she is greatly disappointed," he began. "She will miss you terribly when you leave us, mademoiselle. I wish you would think over your objection." "It is infinitely kind of you, monsieur Vauquelin. I fear that a month is the very most I can manage." "Even to do us a service?" "Ah, a 'service'!" She smiled. "You will find plenty of people ready to do you such services." "Not plenty of mesdemoiselles Paumelle. I am in earnest. It is dull here for Blanche, alone with me. I have done my best for her, I am not consciously selfish--I have sat at home when I wanted to go out, and gone out when I wanted to stop at home. I have taken her to the Français and pretended to enjoy myself, though I could have yawned my head off, and the question of her clothes has absorbed me more than the affairs of France. But I am old. All my tenderness for her cannot alter that." "You do not seem to me old," said mademoiselle Paumelle. "Don't I?" said Vauquelin, regarding her gratefully. "Look how grey my moustache is getting. And yet, do you know, when we're all laughing together I feel as young as ever I was." "Your manner _is_ young. The face alters ever so long before the manner." "I am forty-f--er--over forty, and Blanche is twenty-one. What will you? I must get her married soon. It is my paramount desire. I rather fancy that Daudenarde and she may not dislike each other--the gentleman you saw the other evening." "She was doing her hair from seven o'clock till eight, and he sighed when he handed her the lemonade." "Your observation is invaluable. I must have a chat with his mother soon. It would be an excellent match. In the meantime she stands in need of the companionship and counsel of a young lady like you; she needs it most urgently. If your stepfather can spare you----" "Ah, my stepfather could spare me for ever," she put in; "there are others to listen to him." "And if you are not bored here----"