Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/217

 what I think of her, as a friend. I believe that the habits of the world are not so strong with her that they can satisfy her; and I believe that with her affections touched, with tenderer ties than she has ever known, with a home, with children, with a woman's natural life, in fact, she would be a much happier and very different person, Mais tout cela ne me regarde pas."

The Duc glanced at him and laughed softly, with much amusement.

"Ça vous regarde de bien près—bon succès et bon soir!" he said, as he got out of the carriage at his hôtel in the city. "I told him to marry her," he thought; "but if he expect to convert her too, he must be the boldest and most sanguine man in Europe."

Lady Hilda made up her mind that she was tired of Floralia, as she meditated over her chocolate the next morning, after a night which chloral had made pretty passable, only the baccarat people had screamed so loudly with laughter on the other side of the corridor, that they had awakened her once or twice. Yes, she certainly was tired of it. The town was charming,—but