"Oh yes. But you honour me too much by taking my opinion thus seriously
without question, mademoiselle."

Denise was looking at him with her clear, searching eyes, rather veiled
by a suggestion of disappointment.

"I thought--I thought you seemed so decided, so sure of your own
opinion," she said doubtfully.

De Vasselot was silent for a moment, then he turned to her quickly,
impulsively, confidentially.

"Listen," he said. "I will tell you the truth. I said 'Don't sell.' I say
'Don't sell' still. And I have not a shred of reason for doing so.
There!"

Denise was not a person who was easily led. She laughed at the stern,
strong Mademoiselle Brun to her face, and treated her opinion with a gay
contempt. She had never yet been led.

"No," she said, and seemed ready to dispense with reasons. "You will not
sell, yourself?" she said, after a pause.

"No; I cannot sell," he said quickly; and she remembered his answer long
afterwards.

After a pause he explained farther.

"I tell you frankly," he said earnestly, for he was always either very