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Rh Madame Mila puzzled over her conduct in vain. She did not dare to ask anything, be- cause there were those sixty thousand francs, and her cousin had helped her about them, and you cannot say very intrusive or impertinent things to a person who is lending you money; but it was very odd, thought Madame Mila incessantly, because she evidently was unhappy about the man, and wanted him, and yet must have sent him away. Of course she couldn't have married him; but still there were ways of managing everything; and in Hilda's position she really could do as she liked, and nobody ever would even have said a word.

Of course she would not have married him; that Madame Mila knew; but Society would have made no objection to his being about her always like her courier and her pug and the rest of her following; and if Society doesn't object to a thing, why on earth should you not do it?

II ne faut pas être plus royaliste que le roi: there cannot be the slightest necessity to be more scrupulous than the people that are round you; indeed, to attempt to be more so is to Z 2