"Well, first, some crêpe--we want some crêpe for Jeanne; and then some pencils and paints that I am short of; in fact, there are a lot of things."
"Would you like me to take you all?" proposed M. de Clagny; "I have some business with a lawyer at Pont-sur-Loire at three o'clock. You could do all your errands, and then I would bring you back; it's on my way to The Norinière."
"Oh, what fun!" exclaimed Bijou, delighted. "I have never been on a mail-coach; you don't mind, grandmamma?"
Madame de Bracieux seemed rather undecided.
"Well, I don't know, Bijou dear; you see at Pont-sur-Loire you will be noticed very much perched up there, and for two young girls I don't know whether it is quite the thing--"
"Oh, grandmamma," protested Bijou, "not the thing! and with M. de Clagny there!"
"Yes, with me," put in the count, with emphasis, his face suddenly clouding over, "there is no danger; I am safe enough."
"Yes, certainly," replied Madame de Bracieux with evident sincerity; "but at Pont-sur-Loire everyone is so fond of gossip and scandal."
"Oh, grandmamma," Bijou said, in a beseeching tone, "don't deprive us of a treat, which you don't see any harm in whatever yourself, just because of the Pont-sur-Loire people, about whom you do not care at all."
"Yes, you are right. Go, then, children, as you want to, for, as you say, there is no harm whatever in amusing yourselves in that way."
"Is there any room for me?" asked M. de Rueille.
"For you, and some more of you," answered M. de Clagny; "we are only six at present."
"What do you say about going with them to look after the girls?"
Madame de Rueille glanced at her husband, who appeared to be studying the floor attentively at that moment.
"Oh, Paul will look after them very well!"
"I must ask if you would mind not starting before three o'clock?" said Bijou, advancing towards the window, "because there is M. Sylvestre coming to give me my accompaniment lesson; he is just coming up the avenue."
"The poor fellow!" exclaimed the marchioness, glancing out of the window, "he is actually walking in spite of this terrible heat!"
"Five miles; that is not so tremendous," remarked Henry de Bracieux.
"Well, but when we are out shooting, we do a lot more than that!"