"What could I have done, then, decently ?" "It 's a beautiful drawing," murmured the elder lady, handing the thing back to Longueville.

Her daughter, meanwhile, had not even glanced at it.
"You might have waited till I should go away," this argumentative young person continued.
Longueville shook his head.
"I never lose opportunities!" "You might have sketched me afterwards, from memory." Longueville looked at her, smiling.
"Judge how much better my memory will be now!" She also smiled a little, but instantly became serious.
"For myself, it 's an episode I shall try to forget.

I don't like the part I have played in it." "May you never play a less becoming one!" cried Longueville.

"I hope that your mother, at least, will accept a memento of the occasion." And he turned again with his sketch to her companion, who had been listening to the girl's conversation with this enterprising stranger, and looking from one to the other with an air of earnest confusion.

"Won't you do me the honor of keeping my sketch ?" he said.