iron and brass, I will esteem but straw and rotten wood.”
Ad�le here ran before him with her shuttlecock. “Away!” he cried harshly; “keep at a distance, child; or go in to Sophie!” Continuing then to pursue his walk in silence, I ventured to recall him to the point whence he had abruptly diverged —
“Did you leave the balcony, sir,” I asked, “when Mdlle.
Varens entered?”
I almost expected a rebuff for this hardly well-timed question, but, on the contrary, waking out of his scowling abstraction, he turned his eyes towards me, and the shade seemed to clear off his brow. “Oh, I had forgotten C�line! Well, to resume. When I saw my charmer thus come in