"I shall have to ask Monsieur le Vicomte what he proposes doing in the way of a 'dot,'" pursued the financier with a cackling laugh, which was not silvery, though it savoured of bullion. The Vicomtesse smiled gravely, and offered the Baron one of those little square biscuits peculiar to Fréjus.
"Madame knows nothing of such matters?"
"Nothing," answered she, meeting the twinkling eyes.
"Ah!" murmured the Baron, addressing, it would seem, the distant mountains. "Such details are not, of course, for the ladies. It is the other side of the question"--he laid his hand upon his waistcoat--"the side of the affections--the heart, my dear Vicomtesse, the heart."
"Yes," answered Madame, looking at him with that disquieting straight glance of hers--"the heart."
In the mean time--in the orange a
