Come and see me; I receive every Wednesday, and I am sure the dear countess will never miss an evening if I let her know you will be there.

So I shall be the gainer.

Sometimes she comes between four and five o'clock, and I'll be kind and add you to the little set of favorites I admit at that hour." "Ah!" cried Raoul, "how the world judges; it calls you unkind." "So I am when I need to be," she replied.

"We must defend ourselves.

But your countess I adore; you will be contented with her; she is charming.
Your name will be the first engraved upon her heart with that infantine joy that makes a lad cut the initials of his love on the barks of trees." Raoul was aware of the danger of such conversations, in which a Parisian woman excels; he feared the marquise would extract some admission from him which she would instantly turn into ridicule among her friends.