"Oh, don't swear! I see you know who she is."

"I know nothing about her."

"But"--

"It is true I have heard people talk of her once, a _long time ago_."

"Whom?"

"One of my friends, Maxime de Brevan, a fine, noble fellow."

"What sort of a woman is she?"

"Ah, me! that I cannot tell you. Maxime happened to mention her just
in passing; and I never thought that one of these days I should--If
I seemed to be so very much surprised just now, it was because I
remembered, all of a sudden, a very ugly story in which Maxime said she
had been involved, and then"--

He was ridiculous in his inability to tell a fib; so, when he found that
he was talking nonsense, he turned his head away to avoid Henrietta's
eyes. She interrupted him, and said reproachfully,--

"Do you really think I am not strong enough to hear the truth?"

At first he did not reply. Overcome by the strange position in which he
found himself, he looked for a way to escape, and found none. At last he
said,--