"Virtuous women!" said Lanfranc, "they're meant to reproduce the species. When they have had their children, and that must take place between twenty and thirty, their rôle is finished."

"The only thing left for them to do," said M. Des Boys, "is to concoct philters to keep us young."

The others looked at him interrogatively; he laughed.

"You will see, or rather you'll taste, and you will understand. I wish you all as good a magician as Mme Des Boys."

"True," said M. Hervart, understanding him at last, "she has a real genius for cookery. Dinners of her planning are regular love-potions."

"You'll realise that when you get back to Paris."

"Yes, when I get back to Paris. I am taking a holiday here," said M. Hervart, pleased at this mark of confidence. He even added, so as to guard against possible suspicions:

"A holiday from love is not without a certain melancholy."

Rose had found it all very amusing, but