And the circus afterwards--which is cheaper, but
which he'll find some means of making as dear as possible--that's
also HIS tribute to the ideal. It does for him. He'll see her
through. They won't talk of anything worse than you and me."
"Well, we're bad enough perhaps, thank heaven," she laughed. "to
upset them! Mr. Waymarsh at any rate is a hideous old coquette."
And the next moment she had dropped everything for a different
pursuit. "What you don't appear to know is that Jeanne de Vionnet
has become engaged. She's to marry--it has been definitely
arranged--young Monsieur de Montbron."
He fairly blushed. "Then--if you know it--it's 'out'?"
"Don't I often know things that are NOT out? However," she said,
"this will be out to-morrow. But I see I've counted too much on
your possible ignorance. You've been before me, and I don't make
you jump as I hoped."
He gave a gasp at her insight. "You never fail! I've HAD my jump.
I had it when I first heard."
"Then if you knew why didn't you tell me as soon as you came in?"
"Because I had it from her as a thing not yet to be spoken of."
Miss Gostrey wondered. "From Madame de Vionnet herself?"
"As a probability--not quite a certainty: a good cause in which
Chad has been working.
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