"But it is very foolish of me to betray myself, since Reine cares nothing at all for me!" There was a moment of silence, during which the curb took a pinch of snuff from a tiny box of cherry wood.
"Monsieur de Buxieres;" said he, With a particularly oracular air, "Claudet is dead, and the dead, like the absent, are always in the wrong.

But who is to say whether you are not mistaken concerning the nature of Reine's unhappiness?
I will have that cleared up this very day.

Good-night; keep quiet and behave properly." Thereupon he took his departure, but, instead of returning to the parsonage, he directed his steps hurriedly toward La Thuiliere.
Notwithstanding a vigorous opposition from La Guite, he made use of his pastoral authority to penetrate into Reine's apartment, where he shut himself up with her.

What he said to her never was divulged outside the small chamber where the interview took place.

He must, however, have found words sufficiently eloquent to soften her grief, for when he had gone away the young girl descended to the garden with a soothed although still melancholy mien.