'Do they sell my camellias--the rogues?' he said with a smile. 'Of course you shall go away if you will, but not empty-handed. There must be something better worth having than those frost-bitten roses.'
He called a man who was sweeping up leaves on a lawn here.
'Go and tell your chief to cut his finest orchids and bring them in a basket to me himself: any other rare thing he may have in the houses he can cut also. Mademoiselle,' he said, turning to the girl, 'you must not go back to Millo with such a poor opinion of my gardens. Is the Duchesse well? You remember that I had the honour to be presented to you by her last evening?'
'Men call me so,' he replied, for he never loved that title which seemed to him so contemptible a thing, given, as it had been, in the beginning of the century by the first Emperor. 'I am happy to be the owner of S. Pharamond, since you deign to visit it. You are at Millo every winter, I think?'
'I am; they are not,' she said, regaining her composure a little. 'I did not hear your name last night. I thought you were some gentleman from Paris.'
'I live oftenest in Paris,' he replied, 'but at the present moment I come from Central Asia. I am a friend of Monsignore Melville, as I told you; and I hope you will believe me when I say that, if only for his regard for you, you would be welcome at S. Pharamond.'
He spoke without compliment, seeing that any compliment would only scare her more.
'You help my parish church, did you say?' he continued. 'It is very disgraceful of me never to have known it; we will get Melville to come and preach there. Does the curé want for anything?--is there nothing I could do?'
'He wants a new _soutane_ very much,' she said with hesitation.
'Then a new _soutane_ he shall have before the world is a week older,' said Othmar. 'Why will you go away? Are you too afraid of me to venture into the house? Would you not have some cream, some cakes, some strawberries? What do young Graces like you live upon? Command anything you will.'
'I have had some bread and milk; I want nothing; you are very kind.'
'If you think me so, you must not treat me so distantly. You must make me a friend of yours. The Duchesse herself presented me last night. You seem determined to forget that.'