When, a little breathless, she joined him in the garden, she found that
he had already taken two rocking-chairs into a shady corner which was out
of sight of the white villa and of its inquisitive windows.
"Something very serious has happened," said Count Paul slowly.
He took both her hands in his and looked down into her face. With
surprise and concern she saw that his eyelids were red. Was it possible
that Count Paul had been crying? He almost looked as if he had.
The idea of a grown-up man allowing himself to give way to emotion of
that sort would have seemed absurd to Sylvia a short time ago, but
somehow the thought that Paul de Virieu had shed tears made her feel
extraordinarily moved.
"What is the matter?" she asked anxiously. "Has anything happened to your
sister?"
"Thank God--no!" he answered hastily. "But something else, something
which was to be expected, but which I did not expect, has happened--"
And then, very gravely, and at last releasing her hands, he added, "My
kind godmother, the little Marquise you met last week, died last night.
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