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44 you would get on with my son! He is so studious and cultured! He writes for the Paris papers. ... Not under his own name, of course: he would never consent to commit the name of La Vaudraye to an occupation which, after all, is only an amusement. He quite agrees with me on that question ... as on every other. ... Why don't you come to us one evening? We have a few friends who are pleased to make my drawing-room their daily meeting-place. ... Everybody is dying to see you, Guillaume most of all. ..."

His mother's description of young Guillaume de la Vaudraye was hardly of a nature to charm Gilberte from her isolation. She found an excuse.

"You are making a mistake," cried Mme. de la Vaudraye, who was irritated by her refusal. "Good friends are a necessity: they protect you against evil tongues."

"Evil tongues?"

"Yes, yes, you can understand that one