There was a finesse about it that smacked of a feminine origin, and the baroness was very capable of adopting such a means as this, to spare her own pride and her favorite daughter's.
"The clandestine" is not all sugar.

A more miserable party never went along, even to a wedding.
After waiting a long time for the doctor to declare himself, they turned desperate, and began to chatter all manner of trifles.

This had a good effect: it roused Aubertin from his reverie, and presently he gave them the following piece of information: "I told you the other day that a nephew of mine was just dead; a nephew I had not seen for many years.
Well, my friends, I received last night a hasty summons to his funeral." "At Frejus ?" "No, at Paris.

The invitation was so pressing, that I was obliged to go.
The letter informed me, however, that a diligence passes through Frejus, at eleven o'clock, for Paris.

I heard you say you were going to Frejus; so I packed up a few changes of linen, and my MS., my work on entomology, which at my last visit to the capital all the publishers were mad enough to refuse: here it is.