Monsieur de Courville looked at him in stupefaction.  “Must come to nothing?...  Why?”

“Oh!  Do not ask me, please; it would be too painful for me to tell you; but you may rest assured that I am acting like an honorable man.  I cannot ...  I have no right ... no right, you understand, to marry this lady, and I will wait until she has gone, to come here again; it would be too painful for me to see her.  Good-bye.”  And he absolutely ran away.

The whole family deliberated and discussed the matter, surmising a thousand things.  The conclusion they came to was, that the Baron’s past life concealed some great mystery, that, perhaps, he had natural children, or some connection of long standing.  At any rate, the matter seemed serious, and so as to avoid any difficult complications, they adroitly informed Madame Vilers of the state of affairs, who returned home just as much of a widow as she had come.

Three months more passed, when one evening, when he had dined rather too well, and was rather unsteady on his legs, Monsieur de Coutelier, while he was smoking his pipe with Monsieur de Courville, said to him: 

“You would really pity me, if you only knew how continually I am thinking about your friend.”

But the other, who had been rather vexed at the Baron’s behavior in the circumstances, told him exactly what he thought of him: 

“By Jove, my good friend, when a man has any secrets in his existence, like you have, he does not make advances to a woman, immediately, as you did, for you must surely have foreseen the reason why you had to draw back.”

The Baron left off smoking in some confusion.

“Yes, and no; at any rate, I could not have believed what actually happened.”

Whereupon, Monsieur de Courville lost his patience, and replied: 

“One ought to foresee everything.”

But Monsieur de Coutelier replied in a low voice, in case anybody should be listening:  “I see that I have hurt your feelings, and will tell you everything, so that you may forgive me.  You know that for twenty years I have lived only for sport; I care for nothing else, and think about nothing else.  Consequently, when I was on the point of undertaking certain obligations with regard to this lady, I felt some scruples of conscience.  Since I have given up the habit of ... of love, there!  I have not known whether I was still capable of ... you know what I mean ...  Just think!  It is exactly sixteen years since ...  I for the last time ... you understand what I mean.  In this neighborhood, it is not easy to ... you know.  And then, I had other things to do.  I prefer to use my gun, and so before entering into an engagement before the Mayor[3] and the Priest to ... well, I was frightened.  I said to myself:  ’Confound it; suppose I missed fire!’ An honorable man always keeps his engagements, and in this case, I was undertaking sacred duties with regard to this lady, and so, to feel sure, I made up my mind to go and spend a week in Paris.