But the door opened. Preceded by a precautionary roulade, the ex-first lady reappeared.
“ Allons! ” she remarked to the ceiling. “ Et maintenant, mademoiselle, au travail. ”
Loftus stood up, took Marie’s hand again, held it a second, nodded at the woman. In a moment he had gone.
“ Au revoir ,” the ex-first lady called after him. She turned to the girl. “A gallant monsieur. And good to look at.” Then seating herself at the piano she attacked the brindisi from Lucrezia . “Ah! the segreto !” she interrupted herself to exclaim, “ il segreto per esser felice —the secret of happiness! Mais! There is but one! C’est l’amour! And with a gallant monsieur like that! And rich! C’est le rêve! N’est ce pas, mon enfant? ”
“ Je vous en prie, madame ,” said Marie severely, or rather as severely as she could, for she was trembling with emotion, saturated with the love that had been thrown at her head, drenched with it, frightened too at the apperception of the secret which the aria that her teacher was strumming revealed.