Part 18 (1/2)
”I did not know, and I had something to say to him.”
”To him?” asked the young man suspiciously, and almost aggressively, ”or to M. Giraud?”
Without appearing to notice her cousin's singular att.i.tude towards her, she answered, in a docile way:
”To him, so that he might repeat it to M. Giraud, but as he was not there----”
”It is to Giraud that you have----”
”Given grandmamma's message. Yes,” and then, with an innocent expression in her eyes, she asked: ”Why does it interest you so much to know whether I gave this message to the one rather than to the other?”
He replied, in a joking tone, but with some embarra.s.sment:
”Because I am inquisitive, probably; and the proof that I am inquisitive is that I should like to know what this message was.”
”Grandmamma commissioned me to tell M. Giraud, who has no dress-coat----”
”No dress-coat--Giraud?”
”No.”
”Not a dress-coat at all?”
”There, you say just what I did. No, not a dress-coat of any description! He had sent word that he would not dine with us; and then, as M. de Clagny is staying to dinner, and he is in a frock-coat, I was going to tell Pierrot, so that he could let M. Giraud know. Do you understand now?”
”Yes,” replied Henry, ”quite well--but Jean is very _chic_ and never goes about without a change of dress-coats; he has, at least, three here; he would certainly lend him one--they are exactly the same figure.”
”That would be nice!”
”Oh, he would be glad to do it! Giraud is a very nice fellow; we should all like him, if----”
He stopped short, and Bijou asked:
”If what?”
”Oh, nothing! I'll go and see about this business--at old Clagny's time of life it doesn't matter whether one is got up all right or not; but for Giraud, it's another thing. I am sure he would feel it very much if he thought he looked ridiculous, especially----”
”Especially?”
”Especially before you!”
Bijou shrugged her shoulders, and ran away down the long corridor.
VI.
ALTHOUGH Bijou had superintended the laying of the cloth, and had herself attended to the flowers, the service, and the _menus_, she was ready for dinner before anyone else.
Carrying in her arms an enormous bunch of roses, she entered the drawing-room just as the marchioness had gone upstairs to dress.