"Don't you think Jessie is just the very wife for Frederic, Serge?"
"The usual remark that she is far too good for him seems to be peculiarly appropriate."
"Serge, does Frederic ever talk to you about himself?"
"Only in his more light-hearted moments."
There was a moment's hesitation on Mrs. Folyat's part. Then:
"Serge, there is an odious woman pursuing Frederic. She is threatening him. Has he told you?"
"Oh! Serge, please, please, can't you save him from her clutches? I have been so wretched about it. Don't let him marry her!"
"That," said Serge with gusto, "that he shall not do if I can help it."
"Oh! Serge, thank you. . . . Don't let Frederic know I told you, and don't say anything to your father. It would upset him so dreadfully."
"Oh! Serge. I shall be grateful to you as long as I live. Why does Heaven allow such creatures . . . . ?"
"I must get to my work," said Serge. He kissed his mother and patted her shoulder, and stayed with her until she had dried her eyes and looked up at him with a watery smile.
Later in the morning, hearing Annette in the next room, he called to her, and when she came he asked her:
"She reads any letters she can find. I don't think she can help it," said Annette, blushing for her own lapse.
"Wicked old woman," chuckled Serge. "Would you like a day in the country, one Saturday, Annette?"
"You shall have it. You're the only person in this house who deserves well of the world, and to taste the sweetness of things. Possibly you're the only person who can."
"I would like," said Annette, "I would like to go to a river."
"So you shall, the very best river we can find."
Annette was too busy to stay talking. Serge turned to his work and she strode away.
As Francis had promised, so it was done. Serge found rooms for Annie Lipsett in a not too dull village. Her mother's lodgers were told that she was run down and going away for a change, and would be away for three months. They received the intelligence with about as much interest as though they had been told that the ceilings needed whitewashing--as they did--and Annie went away. The only condition that had been made was that she should not write to Frederic. Her mother shed a great many tears, but promised to come and see her once a week and to be near her when her time came.