"Nay--go on, I entreat you."
"Just now--a few minutes before the arrival of the commissary of police was announced to your aunt--you spoke, I think, of some great interests, which had hitherto been concealed from you."
"Yes, I did so."
"These words," continued M.Baleinier, speaking slowly and emphatically, "appeared to make a deep impression on the princess."
"An impression so deep," said Adrienne, "that sundry suspicions of mine were changed to certainty."
"I need not tell you, my charming friend," resumed M.Baleinier, in a bland tone, "that if I remind you of this circumstance, it is only to offer you my services, in case they should be required.If not--and there is the shadow of impropriety in letting me know more--forget that I have said a word."
Adrienne became serious and pensive, and, after a silence of some moments, she thus answered Dr.Baleinier: "On this subject, there are some things that I do not know--others that I may tell you--others again that I must keep from you: but you are so kind to-day, that I am happy to be able to give you a new mark of confidence."
"Then I wish to know nothing," said the doctor, with an air of humble deprecation, "for I should have the appearance of accepting a kind of reward; whilst I am paid a thousand times over, by the pleasure I feel in serving you."