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IN WHICH WE ENTERTAIN A JAIL-BIRD
THAT effect madame’s story had made upon Lemois became at once an absorbing question. He had listened intently with deferential inclination of the head, and when she had finished had risen from his seat and thanked her calmly with evident sincerity, but whether he was merely paying a tribute to her rare skill—and she told her story extremely well, and with such rapid changes of tones and gestures that every situation and character stood out in relief—or because he was grateful for a new point of view in Mignon’s case, was still a mystery to us. While she was being bundled up by Herbert and Louis for her ride home, Marc had delivered himself of the opinion that Mignon would have her lover in the end; that nothing madame had ever tried to do had failed when once she set her heart and mind to work, and that the banns might as well be published at once. But, then,
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