There was then another pause, after which Mrs. Thompson said that
that was all his French politeness; that she knew that she had been
very troublesome to him, but that she would now soon be gone; and
that then, in her own country, she would never forget his great
goodness.

"Ah, madame!" said M. Lacordaire; and, as he said it, much more was
expressed in his face than in his words. But, then, you can neither
accept nor reject a gentleman by what he says in his face. He
blushed, too, up to his grizzled hair, and, turning round, walked a
step or two away from the widow's seat, and back again.

Mrs. Thompson the while sat quite still. The displaced fragment,
lying, as it did, near a corner of the building, made not an
uncomfortable chair. She had only to be careful that she did not
injure her hat or crush her clothes, and throw in a word here and
there to assist the gentleman, should occasion permit it.

"Madame!" said M. Lacordaire, on his return from a second little
walk.

"Monsieur!" replied Mrs. Thompson, perceiving that M. Lacordaire
paused in his speech.

"Madame," he began again, and then, as he again paused, Mrs.
Thompson looked up to him very sweetly; "madame, what I am going to
say will, I am afraid, seem to evince by far too great audacity on
my part."