Page:The Reverberator (2nd edition, American issue, London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1888).djvu/159

Rh "And do they talk a great deal?"

"Well, I should think so. They don't do much else, and they talk about the queerest things—things I never heard of."

"Ah, that I'll engage!" George Flack exclaimed.

"Of course I have had most conversation with Mr. Probert."

"The old gentleman?"

"No, very little with him. I mean with Gaston. But it's not he that has told me most—it's Mme. de Brécourt. She relates and relates—it's very interesting. She has told me all their histories, all their troubles and complications."

"Complications?"

"That's what she calls them. It seems very different from America. It's just like a story—they have such strange feelings. But there are things you can see—without being told."

"What sort of things?"

"Well, like Mme. de Clichés—" But Francie paused, as if for a word.

"Do you mean her complications?"

"Yes, and her husband's. She has terrible ones. That's why one must forgive her if she is rather peculiar. She is very unhappy."

"Do you mean through her husband?"

"Yes, he likes other ladies better. He flirts with Mme. de Brives."

"Mme. de Brives?"