She knelt down in front of the marchioness, and began again in a coaxing voice:
"Say that you will consent, grandmamma; say so--do, please."
"You are nearly twenty-two. I cannot overrule you as though you were a little child, therefore I consent, but without any enthusiasm, I can assure you, and I implore you to reconsider the matter, Bijou, my dear. I am afraid that you are following the impulse of your kind heart and of your extremely sensitive nature and making a mistake that will be irreparable."
"I do not need to consider the matter any more; I have done nothing else ever since yesterday; and I know that this is my only chance of happiness, or of what at any rate seems to be the most like happiness. Don't say anything to anyone about it, will you, grandmamma?"
"Oh, dear no! you can be easy on that score; you don't imagine that I am in a hurry to announce such an engagement, and to contemplate the horrified, astonished looks they will all put on. Oh, no; if you think I am in a hurry, you are mistaken, my darling."
"And above all, don't say anything to M. de Clagny; I am enjoying the thought of telling him this evening."
"But he told me that he should not come--"
"Ah! but he promised me that he would come." And then, holding up her merry face to be kissed, she added: "And now I must go and attend to our scenery, and to the footlights, which won't light, and to my costume, which is not finished."
The marchioness took Bijou's head in her beautiful hands, which were still so white and smooth, and kissing her, murmured:
"Go, then; and may Heaven grant that we shall have no cause to regret--your good-heartedness--and--my weakness."
The Dubuissons and M. Spiegel had promised to come at four o'clock. One of the scenes which did not go very well had to be rehearsed. Bijou, who was busy gathering flowers, went towards the cab when they arrived, and was surprised to see only Jeanne and her father.
"What have you done with M. Spiegel?" she asked.
It was M. Dubuisson who answered, in a confused sort of way:
"He is coming--with your cousin M. de Rueille, who was at Pont-sur-Loire and who offered to bring him."
"Don't disturb your grandmamma," said Jeanne, taking Bijou's arm. "Papa won't come in yet, he has his lecture to prepare, and he will go and do it, walking about in the park." And then, as soon as M. Dubuisson had moved off, she began again: "If M. Spiegel and I had not had parts in the play, and so had not been afraid of spoiling it for you by not appearing, we should not have come."