She kept smelling at it, and trembling: but she did not untie it, although Pierre suggested how much fresher it would be if the stalks were immediately put into water.

But once, after his back had been turned for a minute, he saw it untied when he looked round again, and Virginie was blushing, and hiding something in her bosom.
"Pierre was now all impatience to set off and find his cousin, But his mother seemed to want him for small domestic purposes even more than usual; and he had chafed over a multitude of errands connected with the Hotel before he could set off and search for his cousin at his usual haunts.

At last the two met and Pierre related all the events of the morning to Morin.

He said the note off word by word.

(That lad this morning had something of the magpie look of Pierre--it made me shudder to see him, and hear him repeat the note by heart.) Then Morin asked him to tell him all over again.