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Rh to go to dinner with him somewhere in the country. The weather was too lovely for Paris, he said. She did not want to go. She said Georges would be angry."

"Who is Georges?"

"Some one I never saw."

"Was he a friend of your aunt's?"

"Yes, I think so. She often talked of him. Monsieur de Maucroix used to talk of him, and to be angry about him."

"Why angry?"

"I don't know. He used to say Georges will not let you do this; Georges will not let you do that. What right has Georges that he should order you here or there? And then my aunt used to cry."

"Were you often at your aunt's apartment?"

"Very often."

"You lived there sometimes, did you not?"

"Yes, I used to stay there for a week sometimes. It was very nice to be with my aunt, much nicer than being with grandmother. She used to take me out in a carriage sometimes. Her rooms were prettier than grandmother's rooms, for there were flowers all about, and pretty things, and she was prettier, and wore prettier clothes."

"But if you were there for a week at a time, how was it that you never saw this Monsieur Georges, who was such a close friend of your aunt's?"

"He never came till late at night. He used to come to supper often. I heard the servant say so. She said he was a dissipated man, a bad subject. Grandmother said so too. 'Has that night-bird been here again?' she asked my aunt once; and my aunt was angry, and began to cry; and then grandmother got angry too, and said, 'Who is he, and what is he? I want to know that.' And then my aunt said, 'He is a gentleman; that is enough for you to know;' and then she showed my grandmother a pretty necklace that Georges had given her the night before—a necklace of shining white beads, like the water-drops from the fountain at the Tuileries."

"They were diamonds, I suppose?"

"Yes, that is what grandmother called them. She wetted them with her tongue to find out if they were real diamonds, and then she and my aunt kissed each other, and made friends."

"You are sure you never saw this Monsieur Georges?"

"Never. My aunt used to send me to bed very early, before she went to the theatre."

"Did she not take you with her to the theatre sometimes?"

"Never. She said that theatres were not good for little girls."

"Now tell me about your journey to Saint-Germain. How did you go?"