She accepted it with an air of uneasy surprise, but begged him not to repeat the offering.
The tears came to his eyes; he left her presence broken-hearted, and the unhappiest of men.

"She does not love me," thought he, "she will never love me." But, three days after, as he looked very sad, she begged him to procure her certain flowers, then very much in fashion, which she wished to place on her flower-stand.

He sent enough to fill the house from the garret to the cellar.

"She will love me," he whispered to himself in his joy.
These events, so trifling but yet so great, had not interrupted the games of piquet; only the young girl now appeared to interest herself in the play, nearly always taking the magistrate's side against the marchioness.

She did not understand the game very well; but, when the old gambler cheated too openly, she would notice it, and say, laughingly,--"She is robbing you, M.Daburon,--she is robbing you!" He would willingly have been robbed of his entire fortune, to hear that sweet voice raised on his behalf.
It was summer time.