Part 17 (1/2)

Bulstrode would never be so near forty again, and De Presle-Vaulx was a spoiled child--at all events, all that could be spoiled in him had been taken care of by his e part of what re the pattern of the table-cloth If the frankness of the other threatened to offend hi there that could do otherwise than please hied with his national habit, then threw out his hands without esture coently exclaimed:

”Oh, but you don't mean to _say_----?”

”I have not, monsieur, much to lose,” the scion of an old house replied siht and last night have quite 'wiped me out,' as you say in Aar De Presle-Vaulx took froently Bulstrode s at him He liked him, and did not understand him at all: not at all! He supposed, that with his different traditions, his Puritanism, his New World point of view, he could _never_ understand hi to do so, for aside fro of the lander extremely responded

His next remark was impersonal:

”Bon Jour, then, you think is not likely----?”

”_Mon cher Monsieur_!She is not even ,” De Presle-Vaulx was gloo ain he looked up quickly ”I shall, of course, be quite able to discharge _that_; I only mean to say that _en somme_, I aoing to do?”

De Presle-Vaulx looked at the end of his cigarette as though he took counsel from it, and saidpossible for a e?”

The Marquis flashed at hio, yes! that would have been the one way out of er in the market It is the other alternative”

Bulstrode in no case caring to hear put in words a tragically disagreeableless faith in this extravagant, explosive alternative than in the _e the Frenchht out--his quiet eyes fixed on the other:

”And the little girl?--Molly--Miss Malines?----”

He gave him three chances to think of the pretty child, and for the first De Presle-Vaulx's expression changed He had with a nonchalance submitted to the discussion of his fortune and his fate, but now he distinctly showed dignity

”Don't, I beg of you, _speak_ of Madeently, ”mille pardons, mon cher ami!”

Bulstrode smoked his Garciaof other people's questions, had not played the good fairy for a long ti--such as he often experienced just before stepping into thethe effects of a narcotic which put to sleep reason and practical common-sense, and left alive only a desire to befriend

In this case, deterain to be the victim of sentimentality, determined for once to unite common sense and common humanity, he forcibly dissipated the haze and said:

”Your family! I have, as you know, understood from Mrs Falconer, the facts of the case You htfully ”I am an Aes We rush in quite where the older races fear to treadand Molly Malines' father is an old friend of mine”

(Mr Bulstrode did not say what kind of an old friend! or even allow himself to remember the IOUs and loans that his bankers had uine, unfortunate stockbroker)

”Your fae to a poor American?”

De Presle-Vaulx pushed his coffee cup aside, leaned his arms on the table, bent over, and said with more confidence:

”Oh, they are entirely opposed to it That's one reason, to be quite frank with you, why I have been so reckless”

He added: ”My mother has refused her consent, and I can never hope to alter my father's attitude I have their letters to-day as well as telegrams from Presle-Vaulxoron--they bid me 'come home immediately,'

and so far as my people are concerned, their refusal puts an end to the affair!”

There was a mixture of amusement and reproach in Bulstrode's tone--”and you have found nothing better to do than to throay at baccarat what money you had, and have found no other solution for the future than to?” he eyed the young man keenly, and a proper severity came into his expression ”Nonsense,” he said, and repeated the ith ence: ”nonsense, _mon ami_!”