"I can not tell," replied Claudet shrugging his shoulders, "she has
confidence in me, and shows me some marks of friendship, but I never have
ventured to ask her whether she feels anything more than friendship for
me. Look here, now. I have good reasons for keeping back; she is rich
and I am poor. You can understand that I would not, for any
consideration, allow her to think that I am courting her for her money--"

"Still, you desire to marry her, and you hope that she will not say no--
you acknowledge that!" cried Julien, vociferously.

Claudet, struck with the violence and bitterness of tone of his
companion, came up to him.

"How angrily you say that, Monsieur de Buxieres!" exclaimed he in his
turn; "upon my word, one might suppose the affair is very displeasing to
you. Will you let me tell you frankly an idea that has already entered
my head several times these last two or three days, and which has come
again now, while I have been listening to you? It is that perhaps you,
yourself, are also in love with Reine?"

"I!" protested Julien. He felt humiliated at Claudet's perspicacity;
but he had too much pride and selfrespect to let his preferred rival know
of his unfortunate passion. He waited a moment to swallow something in
his throat that seemed to be choking him, and then, trying in vain to
steady his voice, he added:

"You know that I have an aversion for women; and for that matter, I think
they return it with interest. But, at all events, I am not foolish
enough to expose myself to their rebuffs. Rest assured, I shall not
follow at your heels!"