Rose looked this way and that in despair and terror; but ended by sinking, more dead than alive, into the seat indicated; and even as she drooped, pale and trembling, on that sofa, Edouard Riviere, worn and agitated, entered the room, and bowed low to them all, without a word.

The baroness looked at him, and then at her daughter, as much as to say, now I have got you; deceive me now if you can.  “Rose, my dear,” said this terrible old woman, affecting honeyed accents, “don’t you see Monsieur Riviere?”

The poor girl at this challenge rose with difficulty, and courtesied humbly to Edouard.

He bowed to her, and stealing a rapid glance saw her pallor and distress; and that showed him she was not so hardened as he had thought.

“You have not come to see us lately,” said the baroness, quietly, “yet you have been in the neighborhood.”

These words puzzled Edouard.  Was the old lady all in the dark, then?  As a public man he had already learned to be on his guard; so he stammered out, “That he had been much occupied with public duties.”

Madame de Beaurepaire despised this threadbare excuse too much to notice it at all.  She went on as if he had said nothing.  “Intimate as you were with us, you must have some reason for deserting us so suddenly.”

“I have,” said Edouard, gravely.

“What is it?”

“Excuse me,” said Edouard, sullenly.

“No, monsieur, I cannot.  This neglect, succeeding to a somewhat ardent pursuit of my daughter, is almost an affront.  You shall, of course, withdraw yourself altogether, if you choose.  But not without an explanation.  This much is due to me; and, if you are a gentleman, you will not withhold it from me.”

“If he is a gentleman!” cried Rose; “O mamma, do not you affront a gentleman, who never, never gave you nor me any ground of offence.  Why affront the friends and benefactors we have lost by our own fault?”

“Oh, then, it is all your fault,” said the baroness.  “I feared as much.”

“All my fault, all,” said Rose; then putting her pretty palms together, and casting a look of abject supplication on Edouard, she murmured, “my temper!”

“Do not you put words into his mouth,” said the shrewd old lady.  “Come, Monsieur Riviere, be a man, and tell me the truth.  What has she said to you?  What has she done?”

By this time the abject state of terror the high-spirited Rose was in, and her piteous glances, had so disarmed Edouard, that he had not the heart to expose her to her mother.

“Madame,” said he, stiffly, taking Rose’s hint, “my temper and mademoiselle’s could not accord.”

“Why, her temper is charming:  it is joyous, equal, and gentle.”

“You misunderstand me, madame; I do not reproach Mademoiselle Rose.  It is I who am to blame.”

“For what?” inquired the baroness dryly.

“For not being able to make her love me.”