He could not therefore have excited the jealousy of her whilom lover; and if it were not he, to whom did the words about rejecting "perfidious friendship," and "returned to town," and so on, apply?
Jeannin divined her embarrassment, and was not a little proud of the tactics which would, he was almost sure; force her to expose herself.

For there are certain women who can be thrown into cruel perplexity by speaking to them of their love-passages without affixing a proper name label to each.

They are placed as it were on the edge of an abyss, and forced to feel their way in darkness.

To say "You have loved" almost obliges them to ask, "Whom ?" Nevertheless, this was not the word uttered by Mademoiselle de Guerchi while she ran through in her head a list of possibilities.

Her answer was-- "Your language astonishes me; I don't understand what you mean." The ice was broken, and the treasurer made a plunge.