CHAPTER IV Wayne was not so prompt as Mathilde in making the announcement of their engagement.

When they came out of the dining-room Pete said to Mathilde with the utmost clearness: "And what was that magazine you spoke of?

He had the courage to be unafraid of silences, and he ate his luncheon and thought about the pictures he had been seeing, and at last began to talk to Mathilde about them, while Adelaide made it clear that she was not listening, until she caught a phrase that drove her grandeur away.

The climax is reached when Mathilde at last gives way to her passion, and throws herself into the arms of Julien, who forces himself to make no response: Ses bras se roidirent, tant l'effort imposé par la politique était pénible.

She paused, debating how long it would take her to separate Mathilde from the Wayne boy; and recalling that this was no topic for an invalid, she smiled at him and went down-stairs.

How could she tell this childlike, optimistic creature that to put Mathilde to living in surroundings like these would be like exposing a naked baby on a mountaintop?