Part 16 (1/2)
As Denyse was moving towards the door, the marchioness called her back.
”I see Bijou has introduced herself,” she said to Clagny, who had not yet got over his admiration, ”What do you think of my grand-daughter?”
And then, without giving him time to answer, she went on quickly: ”It's just the same _Bijou_ you used to admire years ago, just the same! the genuine _Bijou_, there's no _sham_ about it, as my grandsons would say.”
”Mademoiselle Denyse is charming.”
”Denyse (and, by the way, you will oblige me by not calling her mademoiselle) is a dear, good girl, obedient and devoted. Her gaiety has brightened up my old house, which was gloomy enough before her arrival.”
”How is it that I have never seen Mademoiselle Denyse----”
”Mademoiselle again!”
”That I have never seen Bijou in Paris? I come so regularly on your day.”
”Yes, but you always come very early, at an hour when she is never there, and then for the last sixteen years you have never dined with us.”
”I never dine out anywhere, you know; but you have never spoken of Bijou, never told me anything about her.”
”Because you have never asked me about her.”
”I had forgotten about her, to tell the truth, the tiny, baby-child that I saw so little of, and yet just now, when I saw a delicious girl emerging from a rose-bed, I hadn't the slightest hesitation, had I, mademoiselle?” and then correcting himself, he added, laughing: ”had I, Bijou?”
”Yes, that's true! M. de Clagny asked me at once if I were not Denyse de Courtaix----and I, too, knew at once who he was; I had heard so much about him that I seemed to know him in my imagination, and, it's very odd--” She broke off suddenly, and then after gazing thoughtfully at the count, she added: ”I knew him in my imagination just as he is in reality.”
”A very old man,” said Clagny, with a kind of sad playfulness.
”No!” replied Bijou, evidently sincere, ”a very handsome man!” And then abruptly breaking off, she said: ”And Uncle Alexis has not appeared yet; they have rung the bell with all their might in vain, for he doesn't come; I'll go and find him!”
She was hurrying away when the marchioness called her back:
”Stop a minute!--have another place laid at table. You will dine with us, Clagny?”
”Yes, if you have no one here.”
”Oh, but I have; I am just expecting some friends of yours.”
”And I am a regular bear, for I do not even dine with my friends; and then, too, in this get-up--”
”Your get-up is all right, and, besides, there is time to send to The Noriniere for your coat if you particularly care to have it.”
”I do care to, if I stay.”
Bijou approached, and said, in a coaxing way:
”You will stay--and do you know what would be very, very nice of you?
well, it would be to stay just as you are, without your dress-coat.”
”Why do you insist, Bijou, if it annoys him to stay without dressing?”
asked the marchioness.