“You would be the more amusing, my dear.”

She swept the back of her hand across her eyes in a characteristic movement.

“How cross I am!” she said, and laughed waveringly. “You must bear with me, Tracy. Indeed, I am not well.”

“You should take the waters,” he repeated.

“Oh, I do!⁠—I do! And that reminds me that I must look for your beauty.”

“She is not like to be there,” he answered. “ ’Tis only very seldom that she appears.”

“What! Is she then religieuse ?”

“ Religieuse! Why, in heaven’s name?”