“Oh, pray, let us speak of it! how can you think, Countess, that knowing you, the diamond of diamonds, was waiting for me, I should stop to pick up an imitation pearl?”
“Ah! but I know how fickle men are, and Lisette is such a pretty girl!”
“Not so, dear Jane, but you must understand that she being our confidante, and knowing all our secrets, I cannot treat her quite like a servant.”
“How agreeable it must be to be able to say to one’s-self ‘I am deceiving the Comtesse de Mont-Gobert and I am the rival of Monsieur Cramoisi!’ ”
“Very well then, there shall be no more loiterings in the corridors, no more kisses for poor Lisette, supposing of course there ever have been any!”
“Well, after all, there is no great harm in that.”
“Do you mean that I have done something even worse?”
“Where had you been the other night, when you were met on the road between Erneville and Villers-Cotterets?”
“Someone met me on the road?”
“Yes, on the Erneville Road; where were you coming from?”