"Well, but," said Rose, "not from me. Edouard and I have no secrets."
"Come, that's good," said Raynal. "Why, you are the very one he warned
me against the most; said you were as curious as Mother Eve, and as
sharp as her needle."
"Then he is a little scurrilous traitor," cried Rose, turning very red.
"So that is how he talks of me behind my back, and calls me an angel to
my face; I'll pay him for this. Do tell me, commandant; never mind what
HE says."
"What! disobey orders?"
"Orders? to you from that boy!"
"Oh!" said Raynal, "for that matter, we soldiers are used to command one
moment, and obey the next."
In a word, this military pedant was impracticable, and Rose gave him up
in disgust, and began to call up a sulky look when the other two sang
his praises. For the old lady pronounced him charming, and Josephine
said he was a man of crystal; never said a word he did not mean, and
she wished she was like him. But the baroness thought this was going a
little too far.
"No, thank you," said she hastily; "he is a man, a thorough man. He
would make an intolerable woman.
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