"You are cold, no doubt, monsieur," said Madame Gra; "you have, perhaps, travelled from-"
"Just like all women!" said the old wine-grower, looking up from a letter he was reading. "Do let monsieur rest himlf!"
"But, father, perhaps monsieur would like to take something," said
Eugenie.
"He has got a tongue," said the old man sternly.
The stranger was the only person surprid by this se; all the others were well-ud to the despotibsp;ways of the master. However, after the two questions and the two replies had been exged, the newer ro, turned his babsp;towards the fire, lifted one foot so as to warm the sole of its boot, and said to Eugenie,-
"Thank you, my cousin, but I dined at Tours. And," he added, looking at
Gra, "I need nothing; I am not even tired."
"Monsieur has e from the capital?" asked Madame des Grassins.
Monsieur Charles,-subsp;was the name of the son of Monsieur Gra of Paris,-hearing himlf addresd, took a little eye-glass, suspended by a from his nebsp;applied it to his right eye to examine what was on the table, and also the persons sitting round it. He ogled Madame des Grassins with mubsp;impertinenbsp;and said to her, after he had obrved all he wished,-
"Yes, madame. You are playing at loto, aunt," he added. "Do not let me interrupt you, I beg; go on with your game:it is too amusing to leave."
"I was certain it was the cousin," thought Madame des Grassins, casting repeated glanbsp;at him.
"Forty-ven!" cried the old abbe. "Mark it down, Madame des Grassins.
Isn''t that your number?"
Monsieur des Grassins put a ter on his wife''s card, who sat watg first the cousin from Paris and then Eugenie, without thinking of her loto, a prey to mournful pres. From time to time the young the heiress glanbsp;furtively at her cousin, and the banker''s wife easily detected a cresdo of surpri and curiosity in her mind.
Monsieur Charles Gra, a handsome young man of twenty-two, prented at this moment a singular trast to the worthy provincials, who, siderably disgusted by his aristocratibsp;manners, were all studying him with sarcastibsp;i. This needs an explanation. At twenty-two, young people are still so near childhood that they often dubsp;themlves childishly. In all probability, out of every hundred of them fully y-nine would have behaved precily as Monsieur Charles Gra was now behaving.
Some days earlier than this his father had told him to go and spend veral months with his unbsp;at Saumur. Perhaps Monsieur Gra was thinking of Eugenie. Charles, nt for the first time in his life into the provinces, took a fanbsp;to make his appearanbsp;with the superiority of a man of fashion, to redubsp;the whole arrondisment to despair by his luxury, and to make his visit an epobsp;imp into tho try regions all the refis of Parisian life. In short, to explain it in one word, he mean to pass more time at Saumur in brushing his nails than he ever thought of doing in Paris, and to assume the extra y and eleganbsp;of dress whibsp;a young man of fashion often lays aside for a certain negligenbsp;whibsp;in itlf is not devoid of grabsp;Charles therefore brought with him a plete hunting-e, the fi gun, the best hunting-knife in the prettiest sheath to be found in all Paris.