"I was waiting, however--I was waiting for his return. I wished to have
with him a very serious conversation. It is quite true that I felt like
fainting with fear at the mere thought of that explanation; but I was
none the less resolved to speak, and I would speak. It seemed to me
impossible that he had not thought of me sometimes out there in China
and Cochin China. We had always loved each other (till the unhappy day
on which I had become marriageable) with a tender and faithful
affection! I knew that he would arrive in Paris during the night of the
2d or 3d of April. Very certainly the day after he would come and see
us. And so, in fact, towards two o'clock he came. Mamma hadn't finished
dressing; I was alone. I ran to him. 'Ah, how glad I am to see you!' and
I kissed him with effusion. Then he, very much moved, yes, very much
moved, kissed me, and began to say to me such nice and pretty things
that I felt my heart melting. Ah, if mamma hadn't come for five
minutes--I would only have asked for five minutes!--and how quickly it
would have turned into love-making our little explanation!"

"Yes, that is true. The impulse that threw you into my arms was so
sincere. Ah, very certainly it was that day, at that moment, that I
began to love you. And then I looked at you. You were no longer the
same. There was such great and happy change."

"He does not dare say it, Aunt Louise, but I will say it: I had become
fatter. Ah, when I think that I might be Duchess of Courtalin if I had
remained thin. Those men! Those men! What wretches! But mamma came in,
then papa, and then my brother George. No explanation possible! There
they all were engaged in an odious conversation on the comparative
merits of the English and French boats--the English ones are faster, the
food on the French ones is better, etc. It was charming! At the end of
an hour Gontran went away, but not without giving me a very tender and