it's a great pity. M. le Hourteulx: such a fine voice! And M. Beaufrelant: such a brillant talker! And have you heard the reason?"
"No, I can't imagine. ... If I hear the least thing, I'll let you know."
Gilberte was very much vexed when Adèle told her what had happened. She had no doubt that Guillaume de la Vaudraye had told his mother what he knew of the incident and she was distressed at being the cause of disagreement, complication and gossip.
"Perhaps," she thought, "all this would not have come about if I had not been looked upon as married."
And, as a matter of fact, she seemed, as a married woman, to be exposed to unpleasantness which she would have escaped in the position of a girl. Instead of the quiet which she had sought, she found, in the men's behaviour, in their conversation, in their way of looking at her, in the persistency of their pursuit, a host of disturbing little annoy-
