Mademoiselle de Clericy had one near to her who could at all events clothe necessary knowledge in a reassuring garment.
"A marriage of convenience," repeated Madame, speaking for the first time.

"It is so easy to be mistaken in such matters, is it not ?" "As easy for the one as for the other, Madame," replied I."And it was I, and not my father, who was most intimately concerned." She looked at me with a little upward nod of the head and a slow, wise smile.

One never knows whence some women gather their knowledge of the world.
"Monsieur knows Paris ?" she asked.
"As an Englishman, Madame." "Then you only know the worst," was her comment.
She did not ask me to be seated.

It was, I suspected, the hour for dejeuner.

For this household was evidently one to adhere to old-fashioned customs.