He read Theodora like an open book: he knew exactly why she had talked
about the weather after _Jean d'Agrève_. It thrilled him to see her soft
eyes dreamy and luminous when they first spoke of the book, and it
flattered him when she changed the conversation.

As for Theodora, she analyzed nothing, she only felt that perhaps she
ought not to speak about love to one of those people who could never be
husbands.

Captain Fitzgerald, meanwhile, was making tremendous headway with the
widow. He flattered her vanity, he entertained her intelligence, and he
even ended by letting her see she was causing him, personally, great
emotion.

At last this promising evening came to an end. The Russian Prince, with
his American Princess, got up to say good-night, and gradually the party
broke up, but not before Captain Fitzgerald had arranged to meet Mrs.
McBride at Doucet's in the morning, and give her the benefit of his
taste and experience in a further shopping expedition to buy old
bronzes.

"We can all breakfast together at Henry's," he said, with his grand
manner, which included the whole party; and for one instant force of
habit made Theodora's heart sink with fear at the prospect of the bill,
as it had often had to do in olden days when her father gave these royal
invitations. Then she remembered she had not been sacrificed to Josiah
Brown for nothing, and that even if dear, generous papa should happen to
be a little hard up again, a few hundred francs would be nothing to her
to slip into his hand before starting.