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.‘Perhaps I shall be able to have a word with him alone before dinner,’ Yola thought and hurriedly began to undress for her bath.It was, however, very hard to decide what she should wear.She had intended to put on the dress that she had worn the night when they had first dined together and he had kissed her in the Bois de Boulogne.Now she changed her mind.Instead she let the maid dress her in a gown she had never worn before, but because it was the soft pink of a rose, it made her think of the roses in the garden.It might make the Marquis remember that they were in ‘the Garden of France’ and more especially that roses were the flowers of love.Yola hurried, but even so she delayed so long trying to make herself look her best, worrying over the arrangement of her hair and choosing which jewellery she was to wear, that when finally she went down to the salon it was to find that the Marquis and her grandmother were there before her.“I was hoping that some of the old servants I knew as a boy would still be here,” the Marquis was saying.“Dubac, for instance, who taught me to ride, must, I imagine, have retired.”“He is dead,” the Comtesse replied, “but you will recall Albert, who has taken his place?”“Yes, of course!” the Marquis exclaimed.“I remember Albert well and old Cargris, the gardener – is he still alive?”“He has retired,” the Comtesse told him, “but I know it would give him great pleasure if you would call and see him in his cottage near the gates.”“I certainly will do that,” the Marquis agreed.Dinner was announced and he gave his arm to the Comtesse and Yola, following behind them, felt ignored and unnoticed.How could he possibly behave in such a manner to her if he still loved her?A thought struck her like a blow.Suppose he was so angry at her deception that she had lost his love forever?She looked at him apprehensively across the flower-decorated table.Although it was still light outside, the curtains had been drawn and the huge silver candelabrum, which had never been used in her mother‘s time, had been brought from the safe to light the table.As she studied the Marquis, while he talked to her grandmother she thought that he looked a little stern, but perhaps it was just her imagination.He certainly seemed to appreciate everything round him, except herself.“I remember this room so well,” he was saying.“The perfect symmetry of it has always made every other dining room in which I have eaten seem ugly in comparison and the picture over the mantelpiece has always been my favourite.”He looked at it as he went on,“I used to stare at it as a little boy and imagine myself to be that Knight, so skilfully painted by Uccello, killing the dragon.”“It is difficult not to believe in dragons with the forest of Chinon just behind us,” the Comtesse smiled.“It used to seem very dark and mysterious to me,” the Marquis said, “just as I am sure it would have seemed to any child.”He looked across the table at Yola.“Did you imagine that there were dragons when you went riding in the wood, Marie Teresa?” he asked.“And did the idea frighten you?”He spoke in the mocking tone he had used to her when they had first met in the Winter Garden at the Duc’s house.“I always imagined that the Knights who lived in The Castle would kill any dragons who might frighten me,” Yola answered.She looked appealingly at him as she spoke, hoping that he was really interested in her childhood dreams, but he merely turned to her grandmother to say,“I imagine the sounds heard by the yokels and ascribed to dragons were really the sounds of the wild boars.I expect there are still plenty of them to be hunted.”By the end of dinner, Yola, who had been unable to eat anything, was feeling as if she moved in a strange nightmare in which she was reaching out, trying to capture something that eluded her.They moved back to the salon, her grandmother again supported on the Marquis’s arm.They drank coffee and the Marquis accepted a glass of a well-matured brandy from the cellars, while the desultory conversation continued until Yola felt that she would go mad.It seemed as if a century passed before finally her grandmother rose to her feet.“I have to retire early, Leonide,” she said to the Marquis, “but I will leave you two young people to get to know each other.I am sure there are many things about The Castle which Marie Teresa can tell you better than anyone else.”“May I thank you once again for inviting me here,” the Marquis replied.He kissed the Comtesse’s hand and opened the door for her to leave after she had said goodnight to her granddaughter.The Marquis closed the door and came back into the salon.Yola, watching him advance, felt her tension leaving her.They were alone, they were together! Now at last they could be themselves.She waited for him to come to her and take her in his arms, but to her surprise he stopped at the coffee table to pick up his glass of brandy.“Your grandmother is a remarkable woman,” he said conversationally.“She rather frightened me as a small boy, but even then I appreciated that she was very beautiful.”Yola looked at him in astonishment.Surely now that they were alone he did not intend to continue this farce of pretending he did not recognise her?“I hope tomorrow, Marie Teresa,” he said, “you will not only show me The Castle, although I believe I could take myself round it blindfolded, but ride with me over the estate as I used to do with your father so many years ago.”“Leo!” Yola tried to say, but the word seemed to be strangled in her throat
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