During breakfast, which Calyste was invited to share, the marquise,
whose sentiments could be noble and generous, made a sudden return
upon herself, resolving to stifle the germs of love which were rising
in her heart. She was neither cold nor hard to Calyste, but gently
indifferent,--a course which tortured him. Felicite brought forward a
proposition that they should make, on the next day but one, an
excursion into the curious and interesting country lying between Les
Touches, Croisic, and the village of Batz. She begged Calyste to
employ himself on the morrow in hiring a boat and sailors to take them
across the little bay, undertaking herself to provide horses and
provisions, and all else that was necessary for a party of pleasure,
in which there was to be no fatigue. Beatrix stopped the matter short,
however, by saying that she did not wish to make excursions round the
country. Calyste's face, which had beamed with delight at the
prospect, was suddenly overclouded.
"What are you afraid of, my dear?" asked Camille.
"My position is so delicate I do not wish to compromise--I will not
say my reputation, but my happiness," she said, meaningly, with a
glance at the young Breton.
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