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96 would demand that Marguerite should give up love; and the rule further demands, Mademoiselle, that you should begin to think of it."

"The rule is the rule," said Rose sententiously, suppressing the shouts of laughter that exploded silently in her heart.

"The rule's not so stupid after all," she thought. "I don't ask anything better than to obey it...."

At this moment M. Hervart came face to face with them at the turn of a path. Rose welcomed him with a happy smile, a smile of delicious frankness.

"Good," thought M. Hervart, "he isn't my rival yet. My rôle for the moment is to act the part of the man who is sure of himself, the man who possesses, dominates, the lord who is above all changes and chances...."

And he began to talk of his stay at Robinvast and of the pleasure he found in the midst of this rich disorderly scene of nature.

"But you," he said, "have come to put it in order. You have come to whiten these walls, scrape off this moss and ivy, cut clearings through these dark masses, and you will make M. Des Boys a present of a brand-new castle