Besides, I can only accept gifts from a
bridegroom. Beg him to keep the whip until you know whether you are
rich enough to buy it back."
"My little girl has plenty of good sense," said the colonel, kissing
his daughter on the forehead.
Canalis took advantage of a conversation which began between the duke
and Madame Mignon to escape to the terrace, where Modeste joined him,
influenced by curiosity, though the poet believed her desire to become
Madame de Canalis had brought her there. Rather alarmed at the
indecency with which he had just executed what soldiers call a
"volte-face," and which, according to the laws of ambition, every man
in his position would have executed quite as brutally, he now
endeavored, as the unfortunate Modeste approached him, to find
plausible excuses for his conduct.
"Dear Modeste," he began, in a coaxing tone, "considering the terms on
which we stand to each other, shall I displease you if I say that your
replies to the Duc d'Herouville were very painful to a man in love,
--above all, to a poet whose soul is feminine, nervous, full of the
jealousies of true passion.
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