So she’d have to try something else to get his attention, next time they met. But when would that be? She wondered if she could suggest some expedition to Marc, without letting him guess her purpose of course. That would be too embarrassing. But she hadn’t seen Marc for over a week. There seemed to be a coldness between Marc and her father, though she had no idea why.

She found a book on America in her father’s library, and read that. It was all about great spaces, and railways across the plains, and the huge opportunities for the continent’s future trade. She read it all, and she made notes of questions she could ask the American when they did meet. Questions that would show that she wasn’t just a pretty rich girl without a thought in her head.

Once her father came upon her reading the book and asked her with surprise what she was doing.

“When I met that American friend of Marc’s,” she said, “he seemed quite nice, but I couldn’t think of anything to say to him, because I know almost nothing about America. I found the book in your library.”

“Well, it’s a good book, but hardly women’s reading,” he remarked with a smile. “If we go to the bookshop, I’m sure we can find you something more amusing.”

“You could buy me a book and surprise me,” she suggested. “But there’s no hurry.”

After all, it wasn’t as if she was going to marry Hadley. That was quite impossible.

It wasn’t often that Éloïse Blanchard received a message from her brother asking for her advice. Naturally, she came at once.

“What do you think of Roland de Cygne?” he asked, as they sat alone in the salon.

“He’s all right in his way. I haven’t much in common with him, myself.”

“And if he married Marie and made her happy?”

“I should try to like him—if he made her happy. Why? Is he going to?”

“Not at present, it seems. I have just had a letter from him, with the sad news that his father suddenly died. There will be something in the newspapers tomorrow, he thinks.” Jules paused a moment. “Given my friendship with his father, I might have expected to receive a faire-part announcement in due course, but he was under no obligation to write to me like this.”

“Perhaps, with Marie in mind …”