THE UNSPEAKABLE GENTLEMAN
regards and my regrets. And Mademoiselle"—he hesitated an instant—"would you think it insolent if I said I sometimes wished—Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle, do not take it so. It was entirely unpardonable of me."
Mademoiselle had hidden her face in her hands. My father, frowning slightly, rubbed his thumb along his sword blade.
"Forgive me, if you can," he said. "I have often feared my manners would fail me sometime."
She looked up at him then, and her eyes. were very bright.
"Suppose," she said softly, "I told you there was nothing to forgive. Suppose I said"
My father, bowing his lowest, politely and rather hastily interrupted.
"Mademoiselle would be too kind. She would have forgotten that it is quite impossible."
"No," said Mademoiselle, shaking her head slowly, "it is not impossible. You should have known better than to say that. Suppose—" her voice choked a little, as though the words hurt her—"suppose I bade you recall, captain, what you said on the stairs at Blanzy, when they were at the
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