"Yes," replied Lissac. "But I have no great liking for political
salons."
"It is a political centre, and yet not, seemingly. It is about to become
a scientific one, if one may believe the reporters--Monsieur de Rosas is
announced.--By the way, my dear Guy, you still see Monsieur de Rosas!"
While Marianne uttered this name with an indifferent tone, she slightly
bent her head in order to scrutinize Guy.
He did not reply at once, seeking first to discover what object
Marianne had in speaking to him about De Rosas. In a vague way he
surmised that the great Castilian noble counted for something in
Marianne's visit.
"I always see him when he is in Paris," he said after a moment's pause.
"Then you will see him very soon, for he will arrive to-morrow."
"Who told you that?"
"The newspapers. You don't read the newspapers, then?--He is returning
from the East. Madame Marsy is bent on his narrating his travels, on the
occasion of a special soiree. A lecture! Our Rosas must have altered
immensely. He was wild enough of old."
"A shy fellow, which is quite different. But," asked Lissac after a
moment, "what about Rosas?"
"Tell me, in the first place, that you know perfectly well that he will
arrive to-morrow."
"I know it through the reporters, as you say. To-day, it is through the
reporters that one learns news of one's friends."
"The important fact is that you know him, and it is because I am
particularly anxious to hear Monsieur de Rosas that I come to ask you to
present me at Madame Marsy's.
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