He could hardly have chosen a more unpropitious time for pleading his cause with her.

The gaieties of Paris (quite incomprehensibly to herself as well as to everyone about her) had a depressing effect on her spirits.

She had no illness to complain of; she shared willingly in the ever-varying succession of amusements offered to strangers by the ingenuity of the liveliest people in the world--but nothing roused her: she remained persistently dull and weary through it all.

In this frame of mind and body, she was in no humour to receive Henry's ill-timed addresses with favour, or even with patience: she plainly and positively refused to listen to him.

'Why do you remind me of what I have suffered ?' she asked petulantly.