But Mademoiselle Cormon was not a woman to understand the connection which the chevalier intimated between his congratulatory wish and the false front.

Besides, even if she had comprehended it, her word was passed, her hand given.
Monsieur de Valois saw at once that all was lost.

The innocent woman, with the two now silent men before her, wished, true to her sense of duty, to amuse them.
"Why not play a game of piquet together ?" she said artlessly, without the slightest malice.
Du Bousquier smiled, and went, as the future master of the house, to fetch the piquet table.

Whether the Chevalier de Valois lost his head, or whether he wanted to stay and study the causes of his disaster and remedy it, certain it is that he allowed himself to be led like a lamb to the slaughter.

He had received the most violent knock-down blow that ever struck a man; any nobleman would have lost his senses for less.
The Abbe de Sponde and the Vicomte de Troisville soon returned.
Mademoiselle Cormon instantly rose, hurried into the antechamber, and took her uncle apart to tell him her resolution.