White Lies............................................................................................................................................................1

Charles Reade..........................................................................................................................................1

Towards the close of the last century the Baron de Beaurepaire lived in the chateau of that name in Brittany.

His family was of prodigious antiquity; seven successive barons had already flourished on this spot when a

younger son of the house accompanied his neighbor the Duke of Normandy in his descent on England, and

was rewarded by a grant of English land, on which he dug a mote and built a chateau, and called it

Beaurepaire (the worthy Saxons turned this into Borreper without delay). Since that day more than twenty

gentlemen of the same lineage had held in turn the original chateau and lands, and handed them down to their

Thus rooted in his native Brittany, Henri Lionel Marie St. Quentin de Beaurepaire was as fortunate as any

man can be pronounced before he dies. He had health, rank, a good income, a fair domain, a goodly house, a

loving wife, and two lovely young daughters, all veneration and affection. Two months every year he visited

the Faubourg St. Germain and the Court. At both every gentleman and every lacquey knew his name, and his

face: his return to Brittany after this short absence was celebrated by a rustic fete.

Above all, Monsieur de Beaurepaire possessed that treasure of treasures, content. He hunted no heartburns.

Ambition did not tempt him; why should he listen to long speeches, and court the unworthy, and descend to

intrigue, for so precarious and equivocal a prize as a place in the Government, when he could be De

Beaurepaire without trouble or loss of selfrespect? Social ambition could get little hold of him; let parvenus

give balls half in doors, half out, and light two thousand lamps, and waste their substance battling and

manoeuvring for fashionable distinction; he had nothing to gain by such foolery, nothing to lose by modest

living; he was the twenty ninth Baron of Beaurepaire. So wise, so proud, so little vain, so strong in health

and wealth and honor, one would have said nothing less than an earthquake could shake this gentleman and

his house. Yet both were shaken, though rooted by centuries to the soil; and by no vulgar earthquake.

For years France had bowed in silence beneath two galling burdensa selfish and corrupt monarchy, and a

multitudinous, privileged, lazy, and oppressive aristocracy, by whom the peasant was handled like a Russian

The lower orders rose upon their oppressors, and soon showed themselves far blacker specimens of the same

breed. Law, religion, humanity, and common sense, hid their faces; innocent blood flowed in a stream, and

terror reigned. To Monsieur de Beaurepaire these republicansmurderers of women, children, and

kingsseemed the most horrible monsters nature had ever produced; he put on black, and retired from

society; he felled timber, and raised large sums of money upon his estate. And one day he mounted his

Three months after this, a cavalier, dusty and pale, rode into the courtyard of Beaurepaire, and asked to see

It contained a few sad words from Monsieur de Larochejaquelin. The baron had just fallen in La Vendee,

The mourner would have been arrested, and perhaps beheaded, but for a friend, the last in the world on whom

the family reckoned for any solid aid. Dr. Aubertin had lived in the chateau twenty years. He was a man of

science, and did not care a button for money; so he had retired from the practice of medicine, and pursued his

researches at ease under the baron's roof. They all loved him, and laughed at his occasional reveries, in the

days of prosperity; and now, in one great crisis, the protege became the protector, to their astonishment and

his own. But it was an age of ups and downs. This amiable theorist was one of the oldest verbal republicans

in Europe. And why not? In theory a republic is the perfect form of government: it is merely in practice that it

is impossible; it is only upon going off paper into reality, and trying actually to selfgovern limited nations,

after heating them white hot with the fire of politics and the bellows of bombastthat the thing resolves

Dr. Aubertin had for years talked and written speculative republicanism. So they applied to him whether the

baroness shared her husband's opinions, and he boldly assured them she did not; he added, "She is a pupil of

mine." On this audacious statement they contented themselves with laying a heavy fine on the lands of

Assignats were abundant, but good mercantile paper, a notorious coward, had made itself wings and fled, and

specie was creeping into strong boxes like a startled rabbit into its hole. The fine was paid; but Beaurepaire

had to be heavily mortgaged, and the loan bore a high rate of interest. This, with the baron's previous

The baroness sold her carriage and horses, and she and her daughters prepared to deny themselves all but the

bare necessaries of life, and pay off their debts if possible. On this their dependants fell away from them; their

fairweather friends came no longer near them; and many a flush of indignation crossed their brows, and

many an aching pang their hearts, as adversity revealed the baseness and inconstancy of common people high

When the other servants had retired with their wages, one Jacintha remained behind, and begged permission

"What would you with me, my child?" asked that lady, with an accent in which a shade of surprise mingled

"Forgive me, madame," began Jacintha, with a formal courtesy; "but how can I leave you, and Mademoiselle

Josephine, and Mademoiselle Rose? I was born at Beaurepaire; my mother died in the chateau: my father

died in the village; but he had meat every day from the baron's own table, and fuel from the baron's wood,

and died blessing the house of Beaurepaire. I CANNOT go. The others are gone because prosperity is here no

longer. Let it be so; I will stay till the sun shines again upon the chateau, and then you shall send me away if

you are bent on it; but not now, my ladiesoh, not now! Oh! oh! oh!" And the warmhearted girl burst out

"My child," said the baroness, "these sentiments touch me, and honor you. But retire, if you please, while I

The consultation consisted of the baroness opening her arms, and both her daughters embracing her at once.

Proud as they were, they wept with joy at having made one friend amongst all their servants. Jacintha stayed.

As months rolled on, Rose de Beaurepaire recovered her natural gayety in spite of bereavement and poverty;

so strong are youth, and health, and temperament. But her elder sister had a grief all her own: Captain

Dujardin, a gallant young officer, wellborn, and his own master, had courted her with her parents' consent;

and, even when the baron began to look coldly on the soldier of the Republic, young Dujardin, though too

proud to encounter the baron's irony and looks of scorn, would not yield love to pique. He came no more to

the chateau, but he would wait hours and hours on the path to the little oratory in the park, on the bare chance

of a passing word or even a kind look from Josephine. So much devotion gradually won a heart which in

happier times she had been half encouraged to give him; and, when he left her on a military service of

uncommon danger, the woman's reserve melted, and, in that moment of mutual grief and passion, she vowed

Letters from the camp breathing a devotion little short of worship fed her attachment; and more than one

public mention of his name and services made her proud as well as fond of the fiery young soldier.

Still she did not open her heart to her parents. The baron, alive at that time, was exasperated against the

Republic, and all who served it; and, as for the baroness, she was of the old school: a passionate love in a

lady's heart before marriage was contrary to her notions of etiquette. Josephine loved Rose very tenderly; but

shrank with modest delicacy from making her a confidante of feelings, the bare relation of which leaves the

So she hid her heart, and delicious first love nestled deep in her nature, and thrilled in every secret vein and

They had parted two years, and he had joined the army of the Pyrenees about one month, when suddenly all

Restless anxiety rose into terror as this silence continued; and starting and trembling at every sound, and

edging to the window at every footstep, Josephine expected hourly the tidings of her lover's death.

Then a new torture came. He must not be dead but unfaithful. At this all the pride of her race was fired in her.

The struggle between love and ire was almost too much for nature: violently gay and moody by turns she

alarmed both her mother and the good Dr. Aubertin. The latter was not, I think, quite without suspicion of the

truth; however, he simply prescribed change of air and place; she must go to Frejus, a wateringplace distant

about five leagues. Mademoiselle de Beaurepaire yielded a languid assent. To her all places were alike.

But when they returned from Frejus a change had taken place. Rose had extracted her sister's secret, and was

a changed girl. Pity, and the keen sense of Josephine's wrong, had raised her sisterly love to a passion. The

greathearted girl hovered about her lovely, suffering sister like an angel, and paid her the tender attentions

of a devoted lover, and hated Camille Dujardin with all her heart: hated him all the more that she saw

At last Rose heard some news of the truant lover. The fact is, this young lady was as intelligent as she was

inexperienced; and she had asked Jacintha to tell Dard to talk to every soldier that passed through the village,

and ask him if he knew anything about Captain Dujardin of the 17th regiment. Dard crossexamined about a

hundred invalided warriors, who did not even recognize the captain's name; but at last, by extraordinary luck,

he actually did fall in with two, who told him strange news about Captain Dujardin. And so then Dard told

Jacintha; and Jacintha soon had the men into the kitchen and told Rose. Rose ran to tell Josephine; but

stopped in the passage, and turned suddenly very cold. Her courage failed her; she feared Josephine would

not take the news as she ought; and perhaps would not love her so well if SHE told her; so she thought to

herself she would let the soldiers tell their own tale. She went into the room where Josephine was reading to

the baroness and Dr. Aubertin; she sat quietly down; but at the first opportunity made Josephine one of those

imperceptible signals which women, and above all, sisters, have reduced to so subtle a system. This done, she

went carelessly out: and Josephine in due course followed her, and found her at the door.

"Since he lives I fear nothing," said Josephine; and stood there and quivered from head to foot. Rose, with

pitying looks, took her by the hand and drew her in silence towards the kitchen.

Josephine yielded a mute submission at first; but at the very door hung back and faltered, "He loves another;

he is married: let me go." Rose made no reply, but left her there and went into the kitchen and found two

"Be seated, my brave men," said she; "only please tell me what you told Jacintha about Captain Dujardin."

"Marcellus! mademoiselle asks us how we know Captain Dujardin to be a traitor. Speak."

Marcellus, thus appealed to, told Rose after his own fashion that he knew the captain well: that one day the

captain rode out of the camp and never returned: that at first great anxiety was felt on his behalf, for the

captain was a great favorite, and passed for the smartest soldier in the division: that after awhile anxiety gave

place to some very awkward suspicions, and these suspicions it was his lot and his comrade's here to confirm.

About a month later he and the said comrade and two more were sent, well mounted, to reconnoitre a Spanish

village. At the door of a little inn they caught sight of a French uniform. This so excited their curiosity that he

went forward nearer than prudent, and distinctly recognized Captain Dujardin seated at a table drinking

between two guerillas; then he rode back and told the others, who then came up and satisfied themselves it

was so: that if any of the party had entertained a doubt, it was removed in an unpleasant way; he, Marcellus,

disgusted at the sight of a French uniform drinking among Spaniards, took down his carabine and fired at the

group as carefully as a somewhat restive horse permitted: at this, as if by magic, a score or so of guerillas

poured out from Heaven knows where, musket in hand, and delivered a volley; the officer in command of the

party fell dead, Jean Jacques here got a broken arm, and his own horse was wounded in two places, and fell

from loss of blood a few furlongs from the French camp, to the neighborhood of which the vagabonds

pursued them, hallooing and shouting and firing like barbarous banditti as they were.

"However, here I am," concluded Marcellus, "invalided for awhile, my lady, but not expended yet: we will

soon dash in among them again for death or glory. Meantime," concluded he, filling both glasses, "let us

drink to the eyes of beauty (military salute); and to the renown of France; and double damnation to all her

Ere they could drink to this energetic toast, a low wail at the door, like a dying hare's, arrested the glasses on

their road, and the rough soldiers stood transfixed, and looked at one another in some dismay. Rose flew to

Then Rose had the tact and resolution to say a few kind, encouraging words to the soldiers, and bid Jacintha

be hospitable to them. This done she darted upstairs after Josephine; she reached the main corridor just in

time to see her creep along it with the air and carriage of a woman of fifty, and enter her own room.

Rose followed softly with wet eyes, and turned the handle gently. But the door was locked.

A choking voice answered, "Give me a little while to draw my breath." Rose sank down at the door, and sat

close to it, with her head against it, sobbing bitterly. She was hurt at not being let in; such a friend as she had

proved herself. But this personal feeling was only a fraction of her grief and anxiety.

A good half hour elapsed ere Josephine, pale and stern as no one had ever seen her till that hour, suddenly

opened the door. She started at sight of Rose couched sorrowful on the threshold; her stern look relaxed into

tender love and pity; she sank, blushing, on her knees, and took her sister's head quickly to her bosom. "Oh,

my little love, have you been here all this time?""Oh! oh! oh!" was all the little love could reply. Then the

deserted one, still kneeling, took Rose in her lap, and caressed and comforted her, and poured words of

Then Rose suddenly seized Josephine, and looked long and anxiously down into her eyes. They flashed fire

under the scrutiny. "Yes, it is all over; I could not despise and love. I am dead to him, as he is dead to

This was joyful news to Rose. "I hoped it would be so," said she; "but you frightened me. My noble sister,

were I ever to lose your esteem, I should die. Oh, how awful yet how beautiful is your scorn. For worlds I

would not be that Cam" Josephine laid her hand imperiously on Rose's mouth. "To mention his name to

me will be to insult me; De Beaurepaire I am, and a Frenchwoman. Come, dear, let us go down and comfort

They went down; and this patient sufferer, and high minded conqueror, of her own accord took up a

commonplace book, and read aloud for two mortal hours to her mother and Aubertin. Her voice only wavered

To feel that life is ended; to wish existence, too, had ceased; and so to sit down, an aching hollow, and take a

part and sham an interest in twaddle to please others; such are woman's feats. How like nothing at all they

A man would rather sit on the buffer of a steamengine and ride at the Great Redan.

Rose sat at her elbow, a little behind her, and turned the leaves, and on one pretence or other held Josephine's

hand nearly all the rest of the day. Its delicate fibres remained tense, like a greyhound's sinews after a race,

and the blue veins rose to sight in it, though her voice and eyes were mastered.

For ire and scorn are mighty. And noble blood in a noble heart is heroic. And Love is a giant.

The French provinces were now organized upon a half military plan, by which all the local authorities

radiated towards a centre of government. Bytheby, this feature has survived subsequent revolutions and

In days of change, youth is at a premium; because, though experience is valuable, the experience of one order

of things unfits ordinary men for another order of things. So a good many old fogies in office were shown the

door, and a good deal of youth and energy infused into the veins of provincial government. For instance,

Edouard Riviere, who had but just completed his education with singular eclat at a military school, was one

fine day ordered into Brittany to fill a responsible post under Commandant Raynal, a blunt, rough soldier,

that had risen from the ranks, and bore a much higher character for zeal and moral integrity than for

This officer was the son of a widow that kept a grocer's shop in Paris. She intended him for spice, but he

In the armies of the republic a good soldier rose with unparalleled certainty, and rapidity, too; for when

soldiers are being mowed down like oats, it is a glorious time for such of them as keep their feet. Raynal

mounted fast, and used to write to his mother, and joke her about the army being such a bad profession; and,

as he was all for glory, not money, he lived with Spartan frugality, and saved half his pay and all his prize

But this prosperous man had to endure a deep disappointment; on the very day he was made commandant and

one of the general's aidesde camp, came a letter into the camp. His mother was dead after a short illness.

This was a terrible blow to the simple, rugged soldier, who had never had much time nor inclination to flirt

with a lot of girls, and toughen his heart. He came back to Paris honored and rich, but downcast. The old

home, empty of his mother, seemed to him not to have the old look. It made him sadder. To cheer him up

they brought him much money. The widow's trade had taken a wonderful start the last few years, and she had

been playing the same game as he had, living on tenpence a day, and saving all for him. This made him

"What," said he, "have we both been scraping all this dross together for? I would give it all to sit one hour by

the fire, with her hand in mine, and hear her say, 'Scamp, you made me unhappy when you were young, but I

He applied for active service, no matter what: obtained at once this post in Brittany, and threw himself into it

with that honest zeal and activity, which are the best earthly medicine for all our griefs. He was busy writing,

when young Riviere first presented himself. He looked up for a moment, and eyed him, to take his measure;

then put into his hand a report by young Nicole, a subordinate filling a post of the same nature as Riviere's;

and bade him analyze that report on the spot: with this he instantly resumed his own work.

Edouard Riviere was an adept at this sort of task, and soon handed him a neat analysis. Raynal ran his eye

over it, nodded cold approval, and told him to take this for the present as a guide as to his own duties. He then

pointed to a map on which Riviere's district was marked in blue ink, and bade him find the centre of it.

Edouard took a pair of compasses off the table, and soon discovered that the village of Beaurepaire was his

The chateau was in sight from Riviere's quarters, and he soon learned that it belonged to a royalist widow and

her daughters, who all three held themselves quite aloof from the rest of the world. "Ah," said the young

citizen, "I see. If these rococo citizens play that game with me, I shall have to take them down." Thus a fresh

peril menaced this family, on whose hearts and fortunes such heavy blows had fallen.

One evening our young official, after a day spent in the service of the country, deigned to take a little stroll to

relieve the cares of administration. He imprinted on his beardless face the expression of a wearied statesman,

and strolled through an admiring village. The men pretended veneration from policy; the women, whose

views of this great man were shallower but more sincere, smiled approval of his airs; and the young puppy

Outside the village, Publicola suddenly encountered two young ladies, who resembled nothing he had

hitherto met with in his district; they were dressed in black, and with extreme simplicity; but their easy grace

and composure, and the refined sentiment of their gentle faces, told at a glance they belonged to the high

nobility. Publicola divined them at once, and involuntarily raised his hat to so much beauty and dignity,

instead of poking it with a finger as usual. On this the ladies instantly courtesied to him after the manner of

their party, with a sweep and a majesty, and a precision of politeness, that the pup would have laughed at if

he had heard of it; but seeing it done, and well done, and by lovely women of rank, he was taken aback by it,

and lifted his hat again, and bowed again after he had gone by, and was generally flustered. In short, instead

of a member of the Consular Government saluting private individuals of a decayed party that existed only by

sufferance, a handsome, vain, goodnatured boy had met two self possessed young ladies of distinction and

For the next hundred yards his cheeks burned and his vanity cooled. But bumptiousness is elastic in France,

as in England, and doubtless among the Esquimaux. "Well, they are pretty girls," says he to himself. "I never

saw two such pretty girls together; they will do for me to flirt with while I am banished to this Arcadia."

And "awful beauty" being no longer in sight, Mr. Edouard resolved he would flirt with them to their hearts'

content. But there are ladies with whom a certain preliminary is required before you can flirt with them. You

He used to watch at his window with a telescope, and whenever the sisters came out of their own grounds,

which unfortunately was not above twice a week, he would throw himself in their way by the merest

accident, and pay them a dignified and courteous salute, which he had carefully got up before a mirror in the

One day, as he took off his hat to the young ladies, there broke from one of them a smile, so sudden, sweet,

and vivid, that he seemed to feel it smite him first on the eyes then in the heart. He could not sleep for this

Yet he had seen many smilers; but to be sure most of them smiled without effect, because they smiled

eternally; they seemed cast with their mouths open, and their pretty teeth forever in sight; and this has a

saddening influence on a man of sensewhen it has any. But here a fair, pensive face had brightened at sight

of him; a lovely countenance, on which circumstances, not nature, had impressed gravity, had sprung back to

The next Sunday he went to churchand there worshippedwhom? Cupid. He smarted for his heathenism;

for the young ladies went with higher motives, and took no notice of him. They lowered their long silken

lashes over one breviary, and scarcely observed the handsome citizen. Meantime he, contemplating their

pious beauty with earthly eyes, was drinking long draughts of intoxicating passion. And when after the

service they each took an arm of Dr. Aubertin, and he with the air of an admiral convoying two ships

chokefull of specie, conducted his precious charge away home, our young citizen felt jealous, and all but

This went on till he became listless and dejected on the days he did not see them. Then he asked himself

whether he was not a cowardly fool to keep at such a distance. After all he was a man in authority. His

friendship was not to be despised, least of all by a family suspected of disaffection to the state.

He put on his glossy beaver with enormous brim, high curved; his blue coat with brass buttons; his white

waistcoat, gray breeches, and topboots; and marched up to the chateau of Beaurepaire, and sent in his card

Jacintha took it, bestowed a glance of undisguised admiration on the young Adonis, and carried it to the

baroness. That lady sent her promptly down again with a blackedged note to this effect.

Highly flattered by Monsieur de Riviere's visit, the baroness must inform him that she receives none but old

Young Riviere was cruelly mortified by this rebuff. He went off hurriedly, grinding his teeth with rage.

"Cursed aristocrats! We have done well to pull you down, and we will have you lower still. How I despise

myself for giving any one the chance to affront me thus. The haughty old fool; if she had known her interest,

she would have been too glad to make a powerful friend. These royalists are in a ticklish position; I can tell

her that. She calls me De Riviere; that implies nobody without a 'De' to their name would have the

presumption to visit her old tumble down house. Well, it is a lesson; I am a republican, and the

Commonwealth trusts and honors me; yet I am so ungrateful as to go out of the way to be civil to her

enemies, to royalists; as if those wornout creatures had hearts, as if they could comprehend the struggle that

took place in my mind between duty, and generosity to the fallen, before I could make the first overture to

their acquaintance; as if they could understand the politeness of the heart, or anything nobler than curving and

ducking and heartless etiquette. This is the last notice I will ever take of that old woman, unless it is to

He walked home to the town very fast, his heart boiling, and his lips compressed, and his brow knitted.

To this mood succeeded a sullen and bitter one. He was generous, but vain, and his love had humiliated him

so bitterly, he resolved to tear it out of his heart. He absented himself from church; he met the young ladies

no more. He struggled fiercely with his passion; he went about dogged, silent, and sighing. Presently he

devoted his leisure hours to shooting partridges instead of ladies. And he was right; partridges cannot shoot

back; whereas beautiful women, like Cupid, are all archers more or less, and often with one arrow from eye

or lip do more execution than they have suffered from several discharges of our small shot.

In these excursions, Edouard was generally accompanied by a thick set rustic called Dard, who, I believe,

One fine afternoon, about four o'clock, this pair burst remorselessly through a fence, and landed in the road

opposite Bigot's Auberge; a long low house, with "ICI ON LOGE A PIED ET A CHEVAL," written all

across it in gigantic letters. Riviere was for moving homeward, but Dard halted and complained dismally of

"the soldier's gripes." The statesman had never heard of that complaint, so Dard explained that the VULGAR

name for it was hunger. "And only smell," said he, "the soup is just fit to come off the fire."

Riviere smiled sadly, but consented to deign to eat a morsel in the porch. Thereat Dard dashed wildly into the

They dined at one little round table, each after his fashion. When Dard could eat no more, he proceeded to

drink; and to talk in proportion. Riviere, lost in his own thoughts, attended to him as men of business do to a

babbling brook; until suddenly from the mass of twaddle broke forth a magic wordBeaurepaire; then the

languid lover pricked up his ears and found Mr. Dard was abusing that noble family right and left. Young

Riviere inquired what ground of offence they had given HIM. "I'll tell you," said Dard; "they impose on

Jacintha; and so she imposes on me." Then observing he had at last gained his employer's ear, he became

prodigiously loquacious, as such people generally are when once they get upon their own griefs.

"These Beaurepaire aristocrats," said he, with his hard peasant goodsense, "are neither the one thing nor the

other; they cannot keep up nobility, they have not the means; they will not come down off their perch, they

have not the sense. No, for as small as they are, they must look and talk as big as ever. They can only afford

one servant, and I don't believe they pay her; but they must be attended on just as obsequious as when they

had a dozen. And this is fatal to all us little people that have the misfortune to be connected with them."

"Of course I do; but I have the illluck to love Jacintha, and she loves these aristocrats, and makes me do

"What of it, citizen, what? you do not know the fatal meaning of those accursed words?"

"Perhaps not his back, citizen, but his heart? if little odd jobs will not break that, why nothing will. Torn from

place to place, and from trouble to trouble; as soon as one tiresome thing begins to go a bit smooth, off to a

fresh plague, indoors work when it is dry, outadoors when it snows; and then all bustle; no taking one's

work quietly, the only way it agrees with a fellow. 'Milk the cow, Dard, but look sharp; the baroness's chair

wants mending. Take these slops to the pig, but you must not wait to see him enjoy them: you are wanted to

chop billets.' Beat the mats, take down the curtains, walk to church (best part of a league), and heat the pew

cushions; come back and cut the cabbages, paint the door, and wheel the old lady about the terrace, rub

quicksilver on the little dog's back,mind he don't bite you to make hisself sick,repair the ottoman, roll

the gravel, scour the kettles, carry half a ton of water up twopurostairs, trim the turf, prune the vine, drag the

fishpond; and when you ARE there, go in and gather water lilies for Mademoiselle Josephine while you are

drowning the puppies; that is little odd jobs: may Satan twist her neck who invented them!"

Dard took the little sneer for sympathy, and proceeded to "the cruellest wrong of all."

"When I go into their kitchen to court Jacintha a bit, instead of finding a good supper there, which a man has

a right to, courting a cook, if I don't take one in my pocket, there is no supper, not to say supper, for either her

or me. I don't call a salad and a bit of cheeserindSUPPER. Beggars in silk and satin! Every sou they have

"Income! I would not change with them if they'd throw me in half a pancake a day. I tell you they are the

poorest family for leagues round; not that they need be quite so starved, if they could swallow a little of their

pride. But no, they must have china and plate and fine linen at dinner; so their fine plates are always bare, and

their silver trays empty. Ask the butcher, if you don't believe ME. Just you ask him whether he does not go

three times to the smallest shopkeeper, for once he goes to Beaurepaire. Their tenants send them a little meal

and eggs, and now and then a hen; and their great garden is chock full of fruit and vegetables, and Jacintha

makes me dig in it gratis; and so they muddle on. But, bless your heart, coffee! they can't afford it; so they

roast a lot of horsebeans that cost nothing, and grind them, and serve up the liquor in a silver coffeepot, on

"Don't you be so weak as to pity them," cried the remorseless plebeian. "Why don't they melt their silver into

soup, and cut down their plate into rashers of bacon? why not sell the superfluous, and buy the needful, which

it is grub? And, above all, why don't they let their old tumbledown palace to some rich grocer, and that

accursed garden along with it, where I sweat gratis, and live small and comfortable, and pay honest men for

"True?" said Dard, "why, I have seen Rose doing it for the old woman's breakfast: it was Rose invented the

move. A girl of nineteen beginning already to deceive the world! But they are all tarred with the same stick.

Edouard Riviere rose from his seat in great excitement. Dard's abuse of the family he was lately so bitter

against had turned him right round. He pitied the very baroness herself, and forgave her declining his visit.

"Be silent," said he, "for shame! There is such a thing as noble poverty; and you have described it. I might

have disdained these people in their prosperity, but I revere them in their affliction. And I'll tell you what,

He did not conclude his threat, for just then he observed that a strapping girl, with a basket at her feet, was

standing against the corner of the Auberge, in a mighty careless attitude, but doing nothing, so most likely

listening with all her ears and soul. Dard, however, did not see her, his back being turned to her as he sat; so

"I consent," said he very coolly: "that is your affair; but permit me," and here he clenched his teeth at

remembrance of his wrongs, "to say that I will no more be a scullery man without wages to these

highminded starvelings, these illustrious beggars." Then he heated himself redhot. "I will not even be their

galley slave. Next, I have done my last little odd job in this world," yelled the now infuriated factotum,

bouncing up to his feet in brief fury. "Of two things one: either Jacintha quits those aristos, or I leave Jacin

eh?ah!oh!ahem! How'ow d'ye do, Jacintha?" And his roar ended in a whine, as when a dog runs

barking out, and receives in full career a cut from his master's whip, his generous rage turns to whimper with

ludicrous abruptness. "I was just talking of you, Jacintha," quavered Dard in conclusion.

It was a lusty young woman, with a comely peasant face somewhat freckled, and a pair of large black eyes

surmounted by coalblack brows. She stood in a bold attitude, her massive but wellformed arms folded so

that the pressure of each against the other made them seem gigantic, and her cheek red with anger, and her

eyes glistening like basilisks upon citizen Dard. She looked so grand, with her lowering black brows, that

even Riviere felt a little uneasy. As for Jacintha, she was evidently brooding with more ire than she chose to

utter before a stranger. She just slowly unclasped her arms, and, keeping her eye fixed on Dard, pointed with

a domineering gesture towards Beaurepaire. Then the doughty Dard seemed no longer master of his limbs: he

rose slowly, with his eyes fastened to hers, and was moving off like an illoiled automaton in the direction

indicated; but at that a suppressed snigger began to shake Riviere's whole body till it bobbed up and down on

"There, citizen," he cried, "do you see that imperious gesture? That means you promised to dig in the

aristocrat's garden this afternoon, so march! Here, then, is one that has gained nothing by kings being put

down, for I am ruled with a mopstick of iron. Thank your stars, citizen, that you are not in may place."

"Dard," retorted Jacintha, "if you don't like your place, I'd quit it. There are two or three young men down in

"I won't give them the chance, the vile egotists!" cried Dard. And he returned to the chateau and little odd

Jacintha hung behind, lowered her eyes, put on a very deferential manner, and thanked Edouard for the kind

sentiments he had uttered; but at the same time she took the liberty to warn him against believing the

extravagant stories Dard had been telling about her mistress's poverty. She said the simple fact was that the

baron had contracted debts, and the baroness, being the soul of honor, was living in great economy to pay

them off. Then, as to Dard getting no supper up at Beaurepaire, a complaint that appeared to sting her

particularly, she assured him she was alone to blame: the baroness would be very angry if she knew it. "But,"

"Monsieur, he is so egotistic that he has not a friend in the world but me. I forgive him, because I know the

Edouard, aged twenty, and a male, did not comprehend this piece of feminine logic one bit: and, while he

puzzled over it in silence, Jacintha went on to say that if she were to fill her egotist's paunch, she should

never know whether he came to Beaurepaire for her, or himself. "Now, Dard," she added, "is no beauty,

"He is no scholar neither, and I have had to wipe up many a sneer and many a sarcasm on his account; but up

to now I have always been able to reply that this five feet one of egotism loves me sincerely; and the moment

"In a word," said Riviere, a little impatiently, "the family at Beaurepaire are not in such straits as he

Jacintha smiled at this enthusiastic denial, and also because her sex is apt to smile when words are used they

"Dard is a fool," suggested Riviere, by way of general solution. He added, "And yet, do you know I wish

every word he said had been true." (Jacintha's eyes expressed some astonishment.) "Because then you and I

would have concerted means to do them kindnesses, secretly; for I see you are no ordinary servant; you love

"Love them?" said she, clasping her hands; "ah, sir, do not be offended; but, believe me, it is no small thing to

serve an old, old family. My grandfather lived and died with them; my father was their gamekeeper, and fed

to his last from off the poor baron's plate (and now they have killed him, poor man); my mother died in the

house and was buried in the sacred ground near the family chapel. They put an inscription on her tomb

praising her fidelity and probity. Do you think these things do not sink into the heart of the poor?praise on

her tomb, and not a word on their own, but just the name, and when each was born and died, you know. Ah!

"For, look you, among parvenues I should be a servant, and nothing more; in this proud family I am a humble

friend; of course they are not always gossiping with me like vulgar masters and mistresses; if they did, I

should neither respect nor love them; but they all smile on me whenever I come into the room, even the

baroness herself. I belong to them, and they belong to me, by ties without number, by the many kind words in

many troubles, by the one roof that sheltered us a hundred years, and the grave where our bones lie together

* The French peasant often thinks half a sentence, and utters the other half aloud, and so breaks air in the

middle of a thought. Probably Jacintha's whole thought, if we had the means of knowing it, would have run

like thisBesides, I have another reason: I could not be so comfortable myself elsewherefor, look you"

Jacintha clasped her hands, and her black eyes shone out warm through the dew. Riviere's glistened too.

"That is well said," he cried; "it is nobly said: yet, after all, these are ties that owe their force to the souls they

bind. How often have such bonds round human hearts proved ropes of sand! They grapple YOU like hooks of

steel; because you are steel yourself to the backbone. I admire you, Jacintha. Such women as you have a great

"Bring forth heroes," cried Publicola with fervor. "Be the mothers of great men, the Catos and the Gracchi of

Jacintha smiled. She did not know the Gracchi nor their politics; but the name rang well. "Gracchi!"

Aristocrats, no doubt. "That would be too much honor," replied she modestly. "At present, I must say adieu!"

and she moved off an inch at a time, in an uncertain hesitating manner, not very difficult to read; but Riviere,

you must know, had more than once during this interview begged her to sit down, and in vain; she had always

thanked him, but said she had not a moment to stay. So he made no effort to detain her now. The

consequence wasshe came slowly back of her own accord, and sat down in a corner of the porch, where

"Monsieur," said she timidly, "you have a good face, and a good heart. All I told you wasgive me your

"ThenDard was not so far from the truth; it was but a guess of his, for I never trusted my own sweetheart

as I now trust a stranger. But to see what I see every day, and have no one I dare breathe a word to, oh, it is

very hard! But on what a thread things turn! If any one had told me an hour ago it was you I should open my

heart to! It's not economy: it's not stinginess; they are not paying off their debts. They never can. The

"Ay, paupers! their debts are greater than their means. They live here by sufferance. They have only their old

clothes to wear. They have hardly enough to eat. Just now our cow is in full milk, you know; so that is a great

help: but, when she goes dry, Heaven knows what we shall do; for I don't. But that is not the worst; better a

light meal than a broken heart. Your precious government offers the chateau for sale. They might as well

send for the guillotine at once, and cut off all our heads. You don't know my mistress as I do. Ah, butchers,

you will drag nothing out of that but her corpse. And is it come to this? the great old family to be turned adrift

like beggars. My poor mistress! my pretty demoiselles that I played with and nursed ever since I was a child!

(I was just six when Josephine was born) and that I shall love with my last breath"

She could say no more, but choked by the strong feeling so long pent up in her own bosom, fell to sobbing

The statesman, who had passed all his short life at school and college, was frightened, and took hold of her

and pulled her, and cried, "Oh! don't, Jacintha; you will kill yourself, you will die; this is frightful: help here!

help!" Jacintha put her hand to his mouth, and, without leaving off her hysterics, gasped out, "Ah! don't

expose me." So then he didn't know what to do; but he seized a tumbler and filled it with wine, and forced it

between her lips. All she did was to bite a piece out of the glass as clean as if a diamond had cut it. This did

her a world of good: destruction of sacred household property gave her another turn. "There, I've broke your

glass now," she cried, with a marvellous change of tone; and she cameto and cried quietly like a reasonable

When Edouard saw she was better, he took her hand and said proudly, "Secret for secret. I choose this

moment to confide to you that I love Mademoiselle Rose de Beaurepaire. Love her? I did love her; but now

you tell me she is poor and in distress, I adore her." The effect of this declaration on Jacintha was magical,

comical. Her apron came down from one eye, and that eye dried itself and sparkled with curiosity: the whole

countenance speedily followed suit and beamed with sacred joy. What! an interesting love affair confided to

her all in a moment! She lowered her voice to a whisper directly. "Why, how did you manage? She never

"No; but she goes to church. Besides, I have met her eleven times out walking with her sister, and twice out

of the eleven she smiled on me. O Jacintha! a smile such as angels smile; a smile to warm the heart and purify

"Oh! do not jest. I did not laugh at you. Jacintha, it is no laughing matter; I revere her as mortals revere the

saints; I love her so that were I ever to lose all hope of her I would not live a day. And now that you have told

me she is poor and in sorrow, and I think of her walking so calm and gentlealways in black, Jacintha,

and her low courtesy to me whenever we met, and her sweet smile to me though her heart must be sad, oh!

my heart yearns for her. What can I do for her? How shall I surround her with myself unseenmake her feel

that a man's love waits upon her feet every step she takes that a man's love floats in the air round that

lovely head?" Then descending to earth for a moment, "but I say, you promise not to betray me; come, secret

The form of protestation was quite new to Edouard, and not exactly the one his study of the ancient writers

would have led him to select. But the tone was convincing: he trusted her. They parted sworn allies; and, at

the very moment of parting, Jacintha, who had cast many a furtive glance at the dead game, told Edouard

demurely, Mademoiselle Rose was very fond of roast partridge. On this he made her take the whole bag; and

went home on wings. Jacintha's revelation roused all that was noble and forgiving in him. His understanding

and his heart expanded from that hour, and his fancy spread its pinions to the sun of love. Ah! generous

Youth, let who will betray thee; let who will sneer at thee; let me, though young no longer, smile on thee and

joy in thee! She he loved was sad, was poor, was menaced by many ills; then she needed a champion. He

would be her unseen friend, her guardian angel. A hundred wild schemes whirled in his beating heart and

brain. He could not go in doors, indeed, no room could contain him: he made for a green lane he knew at the

back of the village, and there he walked up and down for hours. The sun set, and the night came, and the stars

glittered; but still he walked alone, inspired, exalted, full of generous and loving schemes: of sweet and

The baroness kept her room all the morning, and took no nourishment but one cup of spurious coffee Rose

brought her. Towards evening she came downstairs. In the hall she found two chaplets of flowers; they were

always placed there for her on this sad day. She took them in her hand, and went into the little oratory that

was in the park; there she found two wax candles burning, and two fresh chaplets hung up. Her daughters had

She knelt and prayed many hours for her husband's soul; then she rose and hung up one chaplet and came

slowly away with the other in her hand. At the gate of the park, Josephine met her with tender anxiety in her

sapphire eyes, and wreathed her arms round her, and whispered, "But you have your children still."

The baroness kissed her and they came towards the house together, the baroness leaning gently on her

Between the park and the angle of the chateau was a small plot of turf called at Beaurepaire the Pleasance, a

name that had descended along with other traditions; and in the centre of this Pleasance, or Pleasaunce, stood

a wonderful oaktree. Its circumference was thirtyfour feet. The baroness came to this ancient tree, and

The sun was setting tranquil and red; a broad ruby streak lingered on the deep green leaves of the prodigious

Then she spoke slowly to it and said, "You were here before us: you will be here when we are gone."

A spasm crossed Josephine's face, but she said nothing at the time. And so they went in together.

Now as this tree was a feat of nature, and, above all, played a curious part in our story, I will ask you to stay a

few minutes and look at it, while I say what was known about it; not the thousandth part of what it could have

The baroness did not exaggerate; the tree was far older than even this ancient family. They possessed among

other archives a manuscript written by a monk, a son of the house, about four hundred years before our story,

and containing many of the oral traditions about this tree that had come down to him from remote antiquity.

According to this authority, the first Baron of Beaurepaire had pitched his tent under a fair oaktree that

stood prope rivum, near a brook. His grandson built a square tower hard by, and dug a moat that enclosed

At this time the tree seems only to have been remarked for its height. But, a century and a half before the

monk wrote, it had become famous in all the district for its girth, and in the monk's own day had ceased to

grow; but not begun to decay. The mutilated arm I have mentioned was once a long sturdy bough, worn

smooth as velvet in one part from a curious cause: it ran about as high above the ground as a fullsized horse,

and the knights and squires used to be forever vaulting upon it, the former in armor; the monk, when a boy,

had seen them do it a thousand times. This bough broke in two, A.D. 1617: but the mutilated limb was still

What had not this tree seen since first it came green and tender as a cabbage above the soil, and stood at the

mercy of the first hare or rabbit that should choose to cut short its frail existence!

Since then eagles had perched on its crown, and wild boars fed without fear of man upon its acorns.

Troubadours had sung beneath it to lords and ladies seated round, or walking on the grass and commenting

the minstrel's tales of love by exchange of amorous glances. Mediaeval sculptors had taken its leaves, and

It had seen a Norman duke conquer England, and English kings invade France and be crowned at Paris. It had

seen a girl put knights to the rout, and seen the warrior virgin burned by envious priests with common

Why, in its old age it had seen the rise of printing, and the first dawn of national civilization in Europe. It

flourished and decayed in France; but it sprung in Gaul. And more remarkable still, though by all accounts it

may see the world to an end, it was a tree in ancient history: its old age awaits the millennium; its first youth

belonged to that great tract of time which includes the birth of Christ, the building of Rome, and the siege of

The tree had, ere this, mingled in the fortunes of the family. It had saved their lives and taken their lives. One

lord of Beaurepaire, hotly pursued by his feudal enemies, made for the tree, and hid himself partly by a great

bough, partly by the thick screen of leaves. The foe darted in, made sure he had taken to the house, ransacked

it, and got into the cellar, where by goodluck was a store of Malvoisie: and so the oak and the vine saved the

quaking baron. Another lord of Beaurepaire, besieged in his castle, was shot dead on the ramparts by a

crossbowman who had secreted himself unobserved in this tree a little before the dawn.

A young heir of Beaurepaire, climbing for a raven's nest to the top of this tree, lost his footing and fell, and

died at its foot: and his mother in her anguish bade them cut down the tree that had killed her boy. But the

baron her husband refused, and spake in this wise: "ytte ys eneugh that I lose mine sonne, I will nat alsoe lose

mine Tre." In the male you see the sober sentiment of the proprietor outweighed the temporary irritation of

the parent. Then the mother bought fifteen ells of black velvet, and stretched a pall from the knights' bough

across the west side to another branch, and cursed the hand that should remove it, and she herself "wolde

never passe the Tre neither going nor coming, but went still about." And when she died and should have been

carried past the tree to the park, her dochter did cry from a window to the bearers, "Goe about! goe about!"

and they went about, and all the company. And in time the velvet pall rotted, and was torn and driven away

by the winds: and when the hand of Nature, and no human hand, had thus flouted and dispersed the trappings

of the mother's grief, two pieces were picked up and preserved among the family relics: but the black velvet

So the baroness did nothing new in this family when she hung her chaplet on the knights' bough; and, in fact,

on the west side, about eighteen feet from the ground, there still mouldered one corner of an Atchievement an

heir of Beaurepaire had nailed there two centuries before, when his predecessor died: "For," said he, "the

chateau is of yesterday, but the tree has seen us all come and go." The inside of the oak was hollow as a

drum; and on its east side yawned a fissure as high as a man and as broad as a streetdoor. Dard used to

Yet in spite of excavation and mutilation not life only but vigor dwelt in this wooden shell. The extreme ends

of the longer boughs were firewood, touchwood, and the crown was gone this many a year: but narrow the

circle a very little to where the indomitable trunk could still shoot sap from its cruse deep in earth, and there

on every side burst the green foliage in its season countless as the sand. The leaves carved centuries ago from

these very models, though cut in stone, were most of them mouldered, blunted, notched, deformed: but the

delicate types came back with every summer, perfect and lovely as when the tree was but their elder brother:

and greener than ever: for, from what cause nature only knows, the leaves were many shades richer than any

other tree could show for a hundred miles round; a deep green, fiery, yet soft; and then their multitudethe

staircases of foliage as you looked up the tree, and could scarce catch a glimpse of the sky. An inverted abyss

And now the sun sets; the green leaves are black; the moon rises: her cold light shoots across one half that

How solemn and calm stands the great round tower of living wood, half ebony, half silver, with its mighty

Now is the still hour to repeat in a whisper the words of the dame of Beaurepaire, "You were here before us:

We leave the hoary king of trees standing in the moonlight, calmly defying time, and follow the creatures of a

A spacious saloon panelled; dead but showy white picked out sparingly with gold. Festoons of fruits and

flowers finely carved in wood on some of the panels. These also not smothered in gilding, but as it were gold

speckled here and there, like tongues of flame winding among insoluble snow. Ranged against the walls were

sofas and chairs covered with rich stuffs well worn. And in one little distant corner of the long room a

grayhaired gentleman and two young ladies sat round a small plain table, on which burned a solitary candle;

and a little way apart in this candle's twilight an old lady sat in an easychair, thinking of the past, scarce

daring to inquire the future. Josephine and Rose were working: not fancy work but needlework; Dr.

Aubertin writing. Every now and then he put the one candle nearer the girls. They raised no objection: only a

few minutes after a white hand would glide from one or other of them like a serpent, and smoothly convey

"Is it not suppertime?" he inquired. "I have an inward monitor; and I think our dinner was more ethereal

"Hush!" said Josephine, and looked uneasily towards her mother. "Wax is so dear."

"Wax?ah!pardon me:" and the doctor returned hastily to his work. But Rose looked up and said, "I

wonder Jacintha does not come; it is certainly past the hour;" and she pried into the room as if she expected to

see Jacintha on the road. But she saw in fact very little of anything, for the spacious room was impenetrable

to her eye; midway from the candle to the distant door its twilight deepened, and all became shapeless and

sombre. The prospect ended sharp and black, as in those outo'door closets imagined and painted by a

certain great painter, whose Nature comes to a full stop as soon as he has no further commercial need of her,

instead of melting by fine expanse and exquisite gradation into genuine distance, as nature does in Claude

and in nature. To reverse the picture, if you stood at the door you looked across forty feet of black, and the

little corner seemed on fire, and the fair heads about the candle shone like the St. Cecilias and Madonnas in

At last the door opened, and another candle fired Jacintha's comely peasant face in the doorway. She put

down her candle outside the door, and started as crow flies for the other light. After glowing a moment in the

doorway she dived into the shadow and emerged into light again close to the table with napkins on her arm.

She removed the workbox reverentially, the doctor's manuscript unceremoniously, and proceeded to lay a

cloth: in which operation she looked at Rose a pointblank glance of admiration: then she placed the napkins;

and in this process she again cast a strange look of interest upon Rose. The young lady noticed it this time,

and looked inquiringly at her in return, half expecting some communication; but Jacintha lowered her eyes

and bustled about the table. Then Rose spoke to her with a sort of instinct of curiosity, on the chance of

"Yes, mademoiselle; I have had more cooking than usual," and with this she delivered another pointblank

look as before, and dived into the palpable obscure, and came to light in the doorway.

Her return was anxiously expected; for, if the truth must be told, they were very hungry. So rigorous was the

economy in this decayed but honorable house that the wax candles burned today in the oratory had scrimped

their dinner, unsubstantial as it was wont to be. Think of that, you in fustian jackets who grumble after meat.

The door opened, Jacintha reappeared in the light of her candle a moment with a tray in both hands, and,

approaching, was lost to view; but a strange and fragrant smell heralded her. All their eyes turned with

curiosity towards the unwonted odor, and Jacintha dawned with three roast partridges on a dish.

They were wonderstruck, and looked from the birds to her in mute surprise, that was not diminished by a

certain cynical indifference she put on. She avoided their eyes, and forcibly excluded from her face

everything that could imply she did not serve up partridges to this family every night of her life.

"The supper is served, madame," said she, with a respectful courtesy and a mechanical tone, and, plunging

into the night, swam out at her own candle, shut the door, and, unlocking her face that moment, burst out

radiant, and so to the kitchen, and, with a tear in her eye, setto and polished all the copper stewpans with a

"Pheasants, I hope," cried the doctor, gayly. "And after them hares; to conclude with royal venison. Permit

Now nature is nature, and two pair of violet eyes brightened and dwelt on the fragrant and delicate food with

demure desire; for all that, when Aubertin offered Josephine a wing, she declined it. "No partridge?" cried the

"But you are not to be deprived," put in Josephine, anxiously. "We will not deny ourselves the pleasure of

The baroness had attended to every word of this. She rose from her chair, and said quietly, "Both you and he

These were words the baroness uttered so seldom that they were little likely to be disputed.

When they had all eaten a little, a discussion was observed to be going on between Rose and her sister. At last

Aubertin caught these words, "It will be in vain; even you have not influence enough for that, Rose."

"We shall see," was the reply, and Rose put the wing of a partridge on a plate and rose calmly from her chair.

She took the plate and put it on a little worktable by her mother's side. The others pretended to be all

mouths, but they were all ears. The baroness looked in Rose's face with an air of wonder that was not very

encouraging. Then, as Rose said nothing, she raised her aristocratic hand with a courteous but decided gesture

Undaunted Rose laid her palm softly on the baroness's shoulder, and said to her as firmly as the baroness

The baroness was staggered. Then she looked with moist eyes at the fair young face, then she reflected. At

last she said, with an exquisite mixture of politeness and affection, "It is his daughter who has told me 'Il le

Rose returning like a victorious knight from the lists, saucily exultant, and with only one wet eyelash, was

Thus they loved one another in this great, old, falling house. Their familiarity had no coarse side; a form, not

The love of the daughters for their mother had all the tenderness, subtlety, and unselfishness of womanly

natures, together with a certain characteristic of the female character. And whither that one defect led them,

The baroness retired to rest early; and she was no sooner gone than Josephine leaned over to Rose, and told

her what their mother had said to the oaktree. Rose heard this with anxiety; hitherto they had carefully

concealed from their mother that the government claimed the right of selling the chateau to pay the creditors,

etc.; and now both sisters feared the old lady had discovered it somehow, or why that strange thing she had

said to the oaktree? But Dr. Aubertin caught their remarks, and laid down his immortal MS. on French

insects, to express his hope that they were putting a forced interpretation on the baroness's words.

"I think," said he, "she merely meant how shortlived are we all compared with this ancient oak. I should be

very sorry to adopt the other interpretation; for if she knows she can at any moment be expelled from

Beaurepaire, it will be almost as bad for her as the calamity itself; THAT, I think, would kill her."

"Why so?" said Rose, eagerly. "What is this house or that? Mamma will still have her daughters' love, go

Aubertin replied, "It is idle to deceive ourselves; at her age men and women hang to life by their habits; take

her away from her chateau, from the little oratory where she prays every day for the departed, from her place

in the sun on the south terrace, and from all the memories that surround her here; she would soon pine, and

Here the savant seeing a hobbyhorse near, caught him and jumped on. He launched into a treatise upon the

vitality of human beings, and proved that it is the mind which keeps the body of a man alive for so great a

length of time as fourscore years; for that he had in the earlier part of his studies carefully dissected a

multitude of animals,frogs, rabbits, dogs, men, horses, sheep, squirrels, foxes, cats, etc.,and discovered

no peculiarity in man's organs to account for his singular longevity, except in the brain or organ of mind.

Thence he went to the longevity of men with contented minds, and the rapid decay of the careworn. Finally

he succeeded in convincing them the baroness was so constituted, physically and mentally, that she would

never move from Beaurepaire except into her grave. However, having thus terrified them, he proceeded to

console them. "You have a friend," said he, "a powerful friend; and here in my pocketsomewhereis a

The letter was from Mr. Perrin the notary. It appeared by it that Dr. Aubertin had reminded the said Perrin of

his obligations to the late baron, and entreated him to use all his influence to keep the estate in this ancient

Perrin had replied at first in a few civil lines; but his present letter was a long and friendly one. It made both

the daughters of Beaurepaire shudder at the peril they had so narrowly escaped. For by it they now learned

for the first time that one Jaques Bonard, a small farmer, to whom they owed but five thousand francs, had

gone to the mayor and insisted, as he had a perfect right, on the estate being put up to public auction. This had

come to Perrin's ears just in time, and he had instantly bought Bonard's debt, and stopped the auction; not,

however, before the very bills were printed; for which he, Perrin, had paid, and now forwarded the receipt.

He concluded by saying that the government agent was personally inert, and would never move a step in the

Aubertin assured her the danger was only in appearance. "Your large creditors are men of property, and such

men let their funds lie unless compelled to move them. The small mortgagee, the petty miser, who has,

perhaps, no investment to watch but one small loan, about which he is as anxious and as noisy as a hen with

one chicken, he is the clamorous creditor, the harsh little egoist, who for fear of risking a crown piece would

bring the Garden of Eden to the hammer. Now we are rid of that little wretch, Bonard, and have Perrin on our

The sisters thanked him warmly, and Rose shared his hopes; and said so; but Josephine was silent and

thoughtful. Nothing more worth recording passed that night. But the next day was the first of May,

Now they always celebrated this day as well as they could; and used to plant a tree, for one thing. Dard, well

spurred by Jacintha, had got a little acacia; and they were all out in the Pleasaunce to plant it. Unhappily, they

were a preposterous time making up their feminine minds where to have it set; so Dard turned rusty and said

the park was the best place for it. There it could do no harm, stick it where you would.

"And who told you to put in your word?" inquired Jacintha. "You're here to dig the hole where mademoiselle

Josephine whispered Rose, "I admire the energy of her character. Could she be induced to order once for all

Dard grinned malignantly, and drove in his spade. "It will never be much bigger than a stinging nettle,"

thought he, "for the roots of the oak have sucked every atom of heart out of this." His black soul exulted

Jacintha stood by Dard, inspecting his work; the sisters intertwined, a few feet from him. The baroness turned

aside, and went to look for a moment at the chaplet she had placed yesterday on the oaktree bough.

Presently she uttered a slight ejaculation; and her daughters looked up directly.

"Come here, children," said she. They glided to her in a moment; and found her eyes fixed upon an object

I dare say you have noticed that the bark on the boughs of these very ancient trees is as deeply furrowed as

the very stem of an oak tree that boasts but a few centuries; and in one of these deep furrows lay a green silk

Josephine and Rose eyed it a moment like startled deer; then Rose pounced on it. "Oh, how heavy!" she cried.

This brought up Dard and Jacintha, in time to see Rose pour ten shining gold pieces out of the purse into her

pinkwhite palm, while her face flushed and her eyes glittered with excitement. Jacintha gave a scream of

joy; "Our luck is turned," she cried, superstitiously. Meanwhile, Josephine had found a slip of paper close to

the purse. She opened it with nimble fingers; it contained one line in a hand like that of a copying clerk:

Keen, piquant curiosity now took the place of surprise. Who could it be? The baroness's suspicion fell at once

on Dr. Aubertin. But Rose maintained he had not ten gold pieces in the world. The baroness appealed to

Josephine. She only blushed in an extraordinary way, and said nothing. They puzzled, and puzzled, and were

as much in the dark as ever, when lo! one of the suspected parties delivered himself into the hands of justice

with ludicrous simplicity. It happened to be Dr. Aubertin's hour of outadoor study; and he came mooning

along, buried in a book, and walked slowly into the groupstarted, made a slight apology, and was mooning

off, lost in his book again. Then the baroness, who had eyed him with grim suspicion all the time, said with

wellaffected nonchalance, "Doctor, you dropped your purse; we have just picked it up." And she handed it

to him. "Thank you, madame," said he, and took it quietly without looking at it, put it in his pocket, and

retired, with his soul in his book. They stared comically at one another, and at this cool hand. "It's no more

his than it's mine," said Jacintha, bluntly. Rose darted after the absorbed student, and took him captive. "Now,

doctor," she cried, "be pleased to come out of the clouds." And with the word she whipped the purse out of

his coat pocket, and holding it right up before his eye, insisted on his telling her whether that was his purse or

not, money and all. Thus adjured, he disowned the property mighty coolly, for a retired physician, who had

"No, my dear," said he; "and, now I think of it, I have not carried a purse this twenty years."

The baroness, as a last resource, appealed to his honor whether he had not left a purse and paper on the

knights' bough. The question had to be explained by Josephine, and then the doctor surprised them all by

"Baroness," said he, "I have been your friend and pensioner nearly twenty years; if by some strange chance

money were to come into my hands, I should not play you a childish trick like this. What! have I not the right

to come to you, and say, 'My old friend, here I bring you back a very small part of all I owe you?'"

It was the baroness's turn to be surprised; for there was nothing romantic about Perrin the notary. Aubertin,

however, let her know that he was in private communication with the said Perrin, and this was not the first

While he was converting the baroness to his view, Josephine and Rose exchanged a signal, and slipped away

"Rose, dear, might it not be some person who has done us some wrong, and is perhaps penitent?"

"Certainly; one of our tenants, or creditors, you mean; but then, the paper says 'a friend.' Stay, it says a

"Rose, love," said Josephine, coaxingly, "think of some one that mightsince it is not the doctor, nor

Monsieur Perrin, might it not befor after all, he would naturally be ashamed to appear before me."

"You love him just the same as ever. Oh, it is wonderful; it is terrible; the power he has over you; over your

"Because of what he said to me as we parted at that gate; the words and the voice seem still to ring like truth

across the weary years. He said, 'I am to join the army of the Pyrenees, so fatal to our troops; but say to me

what you never yet have said, Camille, I love you: and I swear I will come back alive.' So then I said to him,

"It is not true; it is not in his nature; inconstancy may be. Tell me that he never really loved me, and I will

believe you; but not that he is a traitor. Let me weep over my past love, not blush for it."

"But him. It is that love which turns your heart against others. Oh, yes, you love him, dearest, or why should

"Why? Because I was mad: because it is impossible; but I see my folly. I am going in."

"No," said Josephine sadly and doggedly; she added with cold nonchalance, "I dare say time will show." And

The donor, whoever he was, little knew the pain he was inflicting on this distressed but proud family, or the

hard battle that ensued between their necessities and their delicacy. The ten gold pieces were a perpetual

temptation: a daily conflict. The words that accompanied the donation offered a bait. Their pride and dignity

declined it; but these bright bits of gold cost them many a sharp pang. You must know that Josephine and

Rose had worn out their mourning by this time; and were obliged to have recourse to gayer materials that lay

in their great wardrobes, and were older, but less worn. A few of these gold pieces would have enabled the

poor girls to be neat, and yet to mourn their father openly. And it went through and through those tender,

simple hearts, to think that they must be disunited, even in so small a thing as dress; that while their mother

The baroness knew their feeling, and felt its piety, and yet could not bow her dignity to say, "Take five of

these bits of gold, and let us all look what we areone." Yet in this, as in everything else, they supported

each other. They resisted, they struggled, and with a wrench they conquered day by day. At last, by general

consent, Josephine locked up the tempter, and they looked at it no more. But the little bit of paper met a

kinder fate. Rose made a little frame for it, and it was kept in a drawer, in the salon: and often looked at and

blessed. Just when they despaired of human friendship, this paper with the sacred word "friend" written on it,

And even so that sweet word, friend, dropped like the dew from heaven on these afflicted ones.

So they locked the potent gold away from themselves, and took the kind slip of paper to their hearts.

The others left off guessing: Aubertin had it all his own way: he upheld Perrin as their silent benefactor, and

bade them all observe that the worthy notary had never visited the chateau openly since the day the purse was

One day in his walks he met a gaunt figure ambling on a fat pony: he stopped him, and, holding up his finger,

"Oh, never be ashamed," said Aubertin; "a good action done slyly is none the less a good action."

"Come, come, don't overdo it," said he. "Well, well; they cannot profit by your liberality; but you will be

The notary muttered indistinctly. He was a man of moderate desires; would have been quite content if there

had been no other world in perspective. He had studied this one, and made it pay: did not desire a better;

"Ah!" said Aubertin, "I see how it is; we do not like to hear ourselves praised, do we? When shall we see you

"I propose to call on the baroness the moment I have good news to bring," replied Perrin; and to avoid any

Now this Perrin was at that moment on the way to dine with a character who plays a considerable part in the

taleCommandant Raynal. Perrin had made himself useful to the commandant, and had become his legal

adviser. And, this very day after dinner, the commandant having done a good day's work permitted himself a

little sentiment over the bottle, and to a man he thought his friend. He let out that he had a heap of money he

did not know what to do with, and almost hated it now his mother was gone and could not share it.

The man of law consoled him with oleaginous phrases: told him he very much underrated the power of

money. His hoard, directed by a judicious adviser, would make him a landed proprietor, and the husband of

some young lady, all beauty, virtue, and accomplishment, whose soothing influence would soon heal the

"You can buy a fine estate and a chaste wife with the money," snapped this smooth personage, substituting

The soldier was struck by the propositions the moment they flew at him small and solid, like bullets.

"I've no time," said he, "to be running after women. But the estate I'll certainly have, because you can get that

And so Perrin received formal instructions to look out for a landed estate; and he was to receive a handsome

Now to settle this affair, and pocket a handsome percentage for himself, he had only to say "Beaurepaire."

Such are all our agents, when rival speculators. Mind that. Still it is a terrible thing to be so completely in the

power of any man of the world, as from this hour Beaurepaire was in the power of Perrin the notary.

Edouard Riviere was unhappy. She never came out now. This alone made the days dark to him. And then he

began to fear it was him she shunned. She must have seen him lie in wait for her; and so she would come out

no more. He prowled about and contrived to fall in with Jacintha; he told her his grief. She assured him the

simple fact was their mourning was worn out, and they were ashamed to go abroad in colors. This revelation

"O Jacintha," said he, "if I could only make a beginning; but here we might live a century in the same parish,

Jacintha admitted this, and said gentlefolks were to be pitied. "Why, if it was the likes of me, you and I

Jacintha herself was puzzled what to do; she would have told Rose if she had felt sure it would be well

received; but she could not find out that the young lady had even noticed the existence of Edouard. But her

One came sooner than she expected. One morning at about six o'clock, as she came home from milking the

cow, she caught sight of young Riviere trying to open the iron gate. "What is up now?" thought she; suddenly

the truth flashed upon her, clear as day. She put her pail down and stole upon him. "You want to leave us

"How did you know? how could you know? you won't betray me? you won't be so cruel? you promised."

"Me betray you," said Jacintha; "why, I'll help you; and then they will be able to buy mourning, you know,

and then they will come out, and give you a chance. You can't open that gate, for it's locked. But you come

The key was in her pocket. But the sly jade wanted him away from that gate; it commanded a view of the

Pleasaunce. He was no sooner safe in the lane, than she tore upstairs to her young ladies, and asked them

"Then come with me. You ARE dressed; never mind your bonnets, or you will be too late."

Questions poured on her; but she waived all explanation, and did not give them time to think, or Josephine,

for one, she knew would raise objections. She led the way to the Pleasaunce, and, when she got to the

ancestral oak, she said hurriedly, "Now, mesdemoiselles, hide in there, and as still as mice. You'll soon know

With this she scudded to the lane, and gave Edouard the key. "Look sharp," said she, "before they get up; it's

This soon began to alternate with chill misgivings at the novelty of the situation.

"No," said Rose, "and suppose when we pounce out on him, it should be a stranger."

A key grated, and the iron gate creaked on its hinges. They ran together and pinched one another for mutual

Presently a man's shadow came slap into the tree. They crouched and quivered, and expected to be caught

instead of catching, and wished themselves safe back in bed, and all this a nightmare, and no worse.

At last they recovered themselves enough to observe that this shadow, one half of which lay on the ground,

while the head and shoulders went a little way up the wall of the tree, represented a man's profile, not his

front face. The figure, in short, was standing between them and the sun, and was contemplating the chateau,

The shadow took off its hat to Josephine, in the tree. Then would she have screamed if she had not bitten her

It wiped its brow with a handkerchief; it had walked fast, poor thing! The next moment it was away.

They looked at one another and panted. They scarcely dared do it before. Then Rose, with one hand on her

heaving bosom, shook her little white fist viciously at where the figure must be, and perhaps a comical desire

of vengeance stimulated her curiosity. She now glided through the fissure like a cautious panther from her

den; and noiseless and supple as a serpent began to wind slowly round the tree. She soon came to a great

protuberance in the tree, and twining and peering round it with diamond eye, she saw a very young, very

handsome gentleman, stealing on tiptoe to the nearest flower bed. Then she saw him take a purse out of his

bosom, and drop it on the bed. This done, he came slowly past the tree again, and was even heard to vent a

little innocent chuckle of intense satisfaction: but of brief duration; for, when Rose saw the purse leave his

hand, she made a rapid signal to Josephine to wheel round the other side of the tree, and, starting together

with admirable concert, both the daughters of Beaurepaire glided into sight with a vast appearance of

Two women together are really braver than fifteen separate; but still, most of this tranquillity was merely put

on, but so admirably that Edouard Riviere had no chance with them. He knew nothing about their tremors; all

he saw or heard was, a rustle, then a flap on each side of him as of great wings, and two lovely women were

upon him with angelic swiftness. "Ah!" he cried out with a start, and glanced from the firstcomer, Rose, to

the gate. But Josephine was on that side by this time, and put up her hand, as much as to say, "You can't pass

here." In such situations, the mind works quicker than lightning. He took off his hat, and stammered an

excuse"Come to look at the oak." At this moment Rose pounced on the purse, and held it up to Josephine.

He was caught. His only chance now was to bolt for the mark and run; but it was not the notary, it was a

novice who lost his presence of mind, or perhaps thought it rude to run when a lady told him to stand still. All

he did was to crush his face into his two hands, round which his cheeks and neck now blushed red as blood.

Blush? they could both see the color rush like a wave to the very roots of his hair and the tips of his fingers.

The moment our heroines, who, in that desperation which is one of the forms of cowardice, had hurled

themselves on the foe, saw this, flashthe quickwitted poltroons exchanged purple lightning over

It was with the quiet composure of lofty and powerful natures that Josephine opened on him. "Compose

yourself, sir; and be so good as to tell us who you are." Edouard must answer. Now he could not speak

through his hands; and he could not face a brace of tranquil lionesses: so he took a middle course, removed

one hand, and shading himself from Josephine with the other, he gasped out, "I ammy name is Riviere; and

"Don't be frightened," said Rose, majestically; "we are not VERY angry, only a LITTLE curious to know

At this pointblank thrust, and from her, Edouard was so confounded and distressed, they both began to pity

him. He stammered out that he was so confused he did not know what to say. He couldn't think how ever he

could have taken such a liberty; might he be permitted to retire? and with this he tried to slip away.

Left alone so suddenly with the culprit, the dignity, and majesty, and valor of Rose seemed to ooze gently

out; and she stood blushing, and had not a word to say; no more had Edouard. But he hung his head, and she

hung her head. And, somehow or other, whenever she raised her eyes to glance at him, he raised his to steal a

This awkward, embarrassing delirium was interrupted by Josephine's return. She now held another purse in

her hand, and quietly poured the rest of the coin into it. She then, with a blush, requested him to take back the

At that he found his tongue. "No, no," he cried, and put up his hands in supplication. "Ladies, do let me speak

ONE word to you. Do not reject my friendship. You are alone in the world; your father is dead; your mother

has but you to lean on. After all, I am your neighbor, and neighbors should be friends. And I am your debtor;

I owe you more than you could ever owe me; for ever since I came into this neighborhood I have been happy.

No man was ever so happy as I, ever since one day I was walking, and met for the first time an angel. I don't

"A look from that angel has made me so good, so happy. I used to vegetate, but now I live. Live! I walk on

wings, and tread on roses. Yet you insist on declining a few miserable louis d'or from him who owes you so

much. Well, don't be angry; I'll take them back, and throw them into the nearest pond, for they are really no

use to me. But then you will be generous in your turn. You will accept my devotion, my services. You have

no brother, you know; well, I have no sisters; let me be your brother, and your servant forever."

At all this, delivered in as many little earnest pants as there were sentences, the water stood in the fair eyes he

Josephine was firm, but angelical. "We thank you, Monsieur Riviere," said she, softly, "for showing us that

the world is still embellished with hearts like yours. Here is the money;" and she held it out in her creamy

"That we are," said Josephine, "and we beg to keep the purse as a souvenir of one who tried to do us a

kindness without mortifying us. And now, Monsieur Riviere, you will permit us to bid you adieu."

Edouard was obliged to take the hint. "It is I who am the intruder," said he. "Mesdemoiselles, conceive, if you

can, my pride and my disappointment." He then bowed low; they courtesied low to him in return; and he

With all their sweetness and graciousness, he felt overpowered by their high breeding, their reserve, and their

composure, in a situation that had set his heart beating itself nearly out of his bosom. He acted the scene over

again, only much more adroitly, and concocted speeches for past use, and was very hot and very cold by

I wish he could have heard what passed between the sisters as soon as ever he was out of earshot. It would

have opened his eyes, and given him a little peep into what certain writers call "the sex."

"Oh, I dare say he hasn't gone far," replied Rose, gayly. "I shouldn't if I was a boy."

Josephine held up her finger like an elder sister; then went on to say she really hardly knew why she had

"Well, dear," said Rose, dryly, "since you admit so much, I must say I couldn't help thinkingwhile you

"Magnificently; you overawed even me. So now to business, as the gentlemen say. Which of us two takes

"Oh! you shall have him," said Rose, "if you like. You are the eldest, you know."

"Oh! there's no compulsion, dear; I never force young ladies' inclinations. So you decline him?"

"Then, oh, you dear, darling Josephine, this is the prettiest present you ever made me," and she kissed her

Josephine was frightened now. She held Rose out at arm's length with both hands, and looked earnestly into

Rose recommended her to keep her pity for Monsieur Riviere, "who had fallen into nice hands," she said.

That no doubt might remain on that head, she whispered mysteriously, but with much gravity and conviction,

"I am an Imp;" and aimed at Josephine with her forefinger to point the remark. For one second she stood and

watched this important statement sink into her sister's mind, then setto and gambolled elfishly round her as

Two days after this a large tree was blown down in Beaurepaire park, and made quite a gap in the prospect.

You never know what a big thing a leafy tree is till it comes down. And this ill wind blew Edouard good; for

it laid bare the chateau to his inquiring telescope. He had not gazed above half an hour, when a female figure

emerged from the chateau. His heart beat. It was only Jacintha. He saw her look this way and that, and

presently Dard appeared, and she sent him with his axe to the fallen tree. Edouard watched him hacking away

at it. Presently his heart gave a violent leap; for why? two ladies emerged from the Pleasaunce and walked

across the park. They came up to Dard, and stood looking at the tree and Dard hacking it, and Edouard

watched them greedily. You know we all love to magnify her we love. And this was a delightful way of

doing it. It is "a system of espionage" that prevails under every form of government. How he gazed, and

gazed, on his now polar star; studied every turn, every gesture, with eager delight, and tried to gather what

But by and by they left Dard and strolled towards the other end of the park. Then did our astronomer fling

down his tube, and come running out in hopes of intercepting them, and seeming to meet them by some

strange fortuity. Hope whispered he should be blessed with a smile; perhaps a word even. So another minute

and he was running up the road to Beaurepaire. But his good heart was doomed to be diverted to a much

humbler object than his idol; as he came near the fallen tree he heard loud cries for help, followed by groans

of pain. He bounded over the hedge, and there was Dard hanging over his axe, moaning. "What is the matter?

Edouard looked, and turned sick, for there was a gash right through Dard's shoe, and the blood welling up

through it. But, recovering himself by an effort of the will, he cried out, "Courage, my lad! don't give in.

Thank Heaven there's no artery there. Oh, dear, it is a terrible cut! Let us get you home, that is the first thing.

Edouard flew to the wheelbarrow, and, reversing it, spun a lot of billet out. "Ye must not do that," said Dard

with all the energy he was capable of in his present condition. "Why, that is Jacintha's wood.""To the devil

with Jacintha and her wood too!" cried Edouard, "a man is worth more than a fagot. Come, I shall wheel you

With some difficulty he lifted him into the barrow. Luckily he had his shootingjacket on with a

The ladies, as they walked, saw a man wheeling a barrow across the park, and took no particular notice; but,

as Riviere was making for the same point they were, though at another angle, presently the barrow came near

enough for them to see Dard's head and arms in it. Rose was the first to notice this. "Look! look! if he is not

Josephine instantly divined there was something amiss. "Consider," said she, "Monsieur Riviere would not

Rose assented; and in another minute, by a strange caprice of fate, those Edouard had come to intercept,

quickened their pace to intercept him. As soon as he saw their intention he thrilled all over, but did not

slacken his pace. He told Dard to take his coat and throw it over his foot, for here were the young ladies

"What for?" said Dard sulkily. "No! let them see what they have done with their little odd jobs: this is my last

"We have met with a little accident, mademoiselle, that is all. Dard has hurt his foot; nothing to speak of, but

"No, don't put him out of heart, mademoiselle. Take another pull at the flask, Dard. If you please, ladies, I

"Oh yes, but I want him to have a surgeon," cried Josephine. "And we have no horses nor people to send off

"But you have me, mademoiselle," said Edouard tenderly. "Me, who would go to the world's end for you." He

said this to Josephine, but his eye sought Rose. "I'm a famous runner," he added, a little bumptiously; "I'll be

He bowed his blushing, delighted face, and wheeled Dard to his cottage hard by with almost more than

mortal vigor. How softly, how nobly, that frolicsome girl could speak! Those sweet words rang in his ears

and ran warm round and round his heart, as he straightened his arms and his back to the work. When they had

gone about a hundred yards, a single snivel went off in the wheelbarrow. Five minutes after, Dard was at

home in charge of his grandmother, his shoe off, his foot in a wet linen cloth; and Edouard, his coat tied

round the neck, squared his shoulders, and ran the two short leagues out. He ran them in forty minutes, found

the surgeon at home, told the case, poohpoohed that worthy's promise to go to the patient presently, darted

into his stable, saddled the horse, brought him round, saw the surgeon into the saddle, started him, dined at

the restaurateur's, strolled back, and was in time to get a good look at the chateau of Beaurepaire just as the

"So you have been at it, my man," cried she cheerfully and rather roughly, then sat down and rocked herself,

with her apron over her head. She explained this anomalous proceeding to his grandmother privately. "I

Next morning, as Riviere sat writing, he received an unexpected visit from Jacintha. She came in with her

finger to her lips, and said, "You prowl about Dard's cottage. They are sure to go and see him every day, and

She did not reply in words, but, after going to the door, returned and gave him a great kiss without ceremony.

"Dare say you know what that's for," said she, and went off with a clear conscience and reddish cheeks.

Dard's grandmother had a little house, a little land, a little money, and a little cow. She could just maintain

Dard and herself, and her resources enabled Dard to do so many little odd jobs for love, yet keep his main

"Go to bed, my little son, since you have got hashed," said she. "Bed be hanged," cried he. "What good is

bed? That's a silly old custom wants doing away with. It weakens you: it turns you into train oil: it is the

doctor's friend, and the sick man's bane. Many a one dies through taking to bed, that could have kept his life

if he had kept his feet like a man. If I had cut myself in two I would not go to bed,till I go to the bed with a

spade in it. No! sit up like Julius Caesar; and die as you lived, in your clothes: don't strip yourself: let the old

women strip you; that is their delight laying out a chap; that is the time they brighten up, the old sorceresses."

He concluded this amiable rhapsody, the latter part of which was levelled at a lugubrious weakness of his

grandmother's for the superfluous embellishment of the dead, by telling her it was bad enough to be tied by

the foot like an ass, without settling down on his back like a cast sheep. "Give me the armchair. I'll sit in it,

and, if I have any friends, they will show it now: they will come and tell me what is going on in the village,

Seated in state in his granny's easychair, the loss of which after thirty years' use made her miserable, she

The rain did, and poured all the afternoon. Night succeeded, and solitude. Dard boiled over with bitterness.

"They are a lot of pigs then, all those fellows I have drunk with at Bigot's and Simmet's. Down with all

The next day the sun shone, the air was clear, and the sky blue. "Ah! let us see now," cried Dard.

Alas! no fellowdrinkers, no fellowsmokers, came to console their hurt fellow. And Dard, who had boiled

with anger yesterday, was now sad and despondent. "Down with egotists," he groaned.

The door was slowly opened, and two lovely faces appeared at the threshold. The demoiselles De

Beaurepaire wore a tender look of interest and pity when they caught sight of Dard, and on the old woman

courtesying to them they courtesied to her and Dard. The next moment they were close to him, one a little to

his right, the other to his left, and two pair of sapphire eyes with the mild lustre of sympathy playing down

incessantly upon him. How was he? How had he slept? Was he in pain? Was he in much pain? tell the truth

now. Was there anything to eat or drink he could fancy? Jacintha should make it and bring it, if it was within

their means. A prince could not have had more solicitous attendants, nor a fairy king lovelier and less earthly

He looked in heavy amazement from one to the other. Rose bent, and was by some supple process on one

knee, taking the measure of the wounded foot. When she first approached it he winced: but the next moment

he smiled. He had never been touched like thisit was contact and no contactshe treated his foot as the

zephyr the violetsshe handled it as if it had been some sacred thing. By the help of his eye he could just

know she was touching him. Presently she informed him he was measured for a list shoe: and she would run

home for the materials. During her absence came a timid tap to the door; and Edouard Riviere entered. He

was delighted to see Josephine, and made sure Rose was not far off. It was Dard who let out that she was

gone to Beaurepaire for some cloth to make him a shoe. This information set Edouard fidgeting on his chair.

He saw such a chance as was not likely to occur again. He rose with feigned nonchalance, and saying, "I

leave you in good hands; angel visitors are best enjoyed alone," slowly retired, with a deep obeisance. Once

outside the door, dignity vanished in alacrity; he flew off into the park, and ran as hard as he could towards

the chateau. He was within fifty yards of the little gate, when sure enough Rose emerged. They met; his heart

"Ah! it is Monsieur Riviere, I declare," said Rose, coolly; all over blushes though.

"Yes, mademoiselle, and I am so out of breath. Mademoiselle Josephine awaits you at Dard's house."

"Not positively. But I could see I should please her by coming for you; there is, I believe, a bull or so about."

"A bull or two! don't talk in that reckless way about such things. She has done well to send you; let us make

"But, mademoiselle, we are not come to them yet, and the faster we go now the sooner we shall."

"Yes; but I always like to get a disagreeable thing over as soon as possible," said Rose, slyly.

After a little spurt, mademoiselle relaxed the pace of her own accord, and even went slower than before.

There was an awkward silence. Edouard eyed the park boundary, and thought, "Now what I have to say I

must say before we get to you;" and being thus impressed with the necessity of immediate action, he turned to

At last he began to color and flutter. She saw something was coming, and all the woman donned defensive

"Is it quite decided that your family refuse my acquaintance, my services, which I stillforgive mepress

on you? Ah! Mademoiselle Rose, am I never to have the happiness ofofeven speaking to you?"

"I?" asked Rose. "What have I to do with questions of etiquette? I am only a child: so considered at least."

"Ask any of them, they will tell you I am a child; and it is to that I owe this conversation, no doubt; if you did

not look on me as a child, you would not take this liberty with me," said the young cat, scratching without a

"Oh! never mind. Children are little creatures without reserve, and treated accordingly, and to notice them is

"Yes, let us part, for there is Dard's house; and I begin to suspect that Josephine never sent you."

"I will offend no more," said poor silly Edouard. "Adieu, mademoiselle. May you find friends as sincere as I

"Heaven hear your prayers!" replied the malicious thing, casting up her eyes with a mock tragic air.

Edouard sighed; a chill conviction that she was both heartless and empty fell on him. He turned away without

another word. She called to him with a sudden airy cheerfulness that made him start. "Stay, monsieur, I

Rose stopped, and began to play with her parasol. "You seem," said she softly, "to be pretty generous in

bestowing your acquaintance on strangers. I should be glad if I might secure you for a dear friend of mine,

Dr. Aubertin. He will not discredit my recommendation; and he will not make so many difficulties as we do;

shall I tell you why? Because he is really worth knowing. In short, believe me, it will be a valuable

acquaintance for youand for him," added she with all the grace of the De Beaurepaires.

Many a man, inferior in a general way to Edouard Riviere, would have made a sensible reply to this. Such as,

"Oh, any friend of yours, mademoiselle, must be welcome to me," or the like. But the proposal caught

Edouard on his foible, his vanity, to wit; and our foibles are our manias. He was mortified to the heart's core.

"She refuses to know me herself," thought he, "but she will use my love to make me amuse that old man." His

heart swelled against her injustice and ingratitude, and his crushed vanity turned to strychnine.

"Mademoiselle," said he, bitterly and doggedly, but sadly, "were I so happy as to have your esteem, my heart

would overflow, not only on the doctor but on every honest person around. But if I must not have the

acquaintance I value more than life, suffer me to be alone in the world, and never to say a word either to Dr.

The imperious young beauty drew herself up directly. "So be it, monsieur; you teach me how a child should

be answered that forgets herself, and asks a favor of a strangera perfect stranger," added she, maliciously.

Could one of the dogdays change to midwinter in a second, it would hardly seem so cold and cross as Rose

de Beaurepaire turned from the smiling, saucy fairy of the moment before. Edouard felt as it were a portcullis

of ice come down between her and him. She courtesied and glided away. He bowed and stood frozen to the

He took advantage of the ladies being with Dard, and marched boldly into the kitchen of Beaurepaire.

He hurled himself on the kitchen table (clean as china), and told her it was all over. "She hates me now; but it

is not my fault," and so poured forth his tale, and feeling sure of sympathy, asked Jacintha whether it was not

bitterly unjust of Rose to refuse him her own acquaintance, yet ask him to amuse that old fogy.

Jacintha stood with her great arms akimbo, taking it all in, and looking at him with a droll expression of

"Now you listen to a parable," said she. "Once there was a little boy madly in love with raspberry jam."

"Don't tell me! Who hates raspberry jam? He came to the store closet, where he knew there were jars of it,

andoh! miserythe door was locked. He kicked the door, and wept bitterly. His mamma came and said,

'Here is the key,' and gave him the key. And what did he do? Why, he fell to crying and roaring, and kicking

the door. 'I don't wawawawant the keyeyey. I waaant the jam oh! oh! oh! oh!'" and Jacintha

mimicked, after her fashion, the mingled grief and ire of infancy debarred its jam. Edouard wore a puzzled

air, but it was only for a moment; the next he hid his face in his hands, and cried, "Fool!"

"She was my best friend. Once acquainted with the doctor, I could visit at Beaurepaire."

"She had thought of a way to reconcile my wishes with this terrible etiquette that reigns here."

"No, you are not," and Jacintha laid a grasp of iron on him. "Will you be quiet?is not one blunder a day

enough? If you go near her now, she will affront you, and order the doctor not to speak to you."

"While it lasts. Luckily with us nothing lasts very long. Now you don't go near her till you have taken

advantage of her hint, and made the doctor's acquaintance; that is easy done. He walks two hours on the east

road every day, with his feet in the puddles and his head in the clouds. Them's HIS two tastes."

"But how am I to get him out of the clouds and the puddles?" inquired Riviere half peevishly.

"How?" asked Jacintha, with a dash of that contempt uneducated persons generally have for any one who

does not know some little thing they happen to know themselves. "How? Why, with the nearest blackbeetle,

"Black or brown; it matters little. Have her ready for use in your handkerchief: pull a long face: and says

you'Excuse me, sir, I have THE MISFORTUNE not to know the Greek name of this merchandise here.'

Say that, and behold him launched. He will christen you the beast in Hebrew and Latin as well as Greek, and

tell you her history down from the flood: next he will beg her of you, and out will come a cork and a pin, and

behold the creature impaled. For that is how men love beetles. He has a thousand pinned down at

homebeetles, butterflies, and so forth. When I go near the rubbish with my duster he trembles like an

aspen. I pretend to be going to clean them, but it is only to see the face he makes, for even a domestic must

laugh now and thenor die. But I never do clean them, for after all he is more stupid than wicked, poor man:

"Let us return to our beetlewhat will his tirades about its antiquity advance me?"

Riviere profited by this advice. He even improved on it. In due course he threw himself into Aubertin's way.

He stopped the doctor reverentially, and said he had heard he was an entomologist. WOULD he be kind

"The death's head moth!" cried Aubertin with enthusiasm"the death's head moth! a great rarity in this

It was half a league distant. Coming and going he had time to make friends with Aubertin, and this was the

easier that the old gentleman, who was a physiognomist as well as ologist, had seen goodness and sensibility

in Edouard's face. At the end of the walk he begged the doctor to accept the chrysalis. The doctor coquetted.

"That would be a robbery. You take an interest in these things yourselfat least I hope so."

The young rogue confessed modestly to the sentiment of entomology, but "the government worked him so

hard as to leave him no hopes of shining in so high a science," said he sorrowfully.

The doctor pitied him. "A young man of your attainments and tastes to be debarred from the everlasting

Riviere shrugged his shoulders. "Somebody must do the dirty work," said he, chuckling inwardly.

The chrysalis went to Beaurepaire in the pocket of a grateful man, who that same evening told the whole

party his conversation with young Riviere, on whom he pronounced high encomiums. Rose's saucy eyes

sparkled with fun: you might have lighted a candle at one and exploded a mine at the other; but not a syllable

The doctor proved a key, and opened the enchanted castle. One fine day he presented his friend in the

They received him with perfect politeness. Thus introduced, and as he was not one to let the grass grow under

his feet, he soon obtained a footing as friend of the family, which, being now advised by Josephine, he took

care not to compromise by making love to Rose before the baroness. However, he insisted on placing his

financial talent at their service. He surveyed and valued their lands, and soon discovered that all their farms

were grossly underlet. Luckily most of the leases were run out. He prepared a new rent roll, and showed it

Aubertin, now his fast friend. Aubertin at his request obtained a list of the mortgages, and Edouard drew a

balancesheet founded on sure data, and proved to the baroness that in able hands the said estate was now

This was a great comfort to the old lady: and she said to Aubertin, "Heaven has sent us a champion, a little

Descending to practice, Edouard actually put three of the farms into the market, and let them at an advance of

twenty per cent on the expired leases. He brought these leases signed; and the baroness had scarcely done

thanking him, when her other secret friend, Monsieur Perrin, was announced. Edouard exchanged civilities

with him, and then retired to the Pleasaunce. There he found both sisters, who were all tenderness and

gratitude to him. By this time he had learned to value Josephine: she was so lovely and so good, and such a

true womanly friend to him. Even Rose could not resist her influence, and was obliged to be kind to him,

when Josephine was by. But let Josephine go, and instead of her being more tender, as any other girl would,

left alone with her lover, sauciness resumed its empire till sweet Josephine returned. Whereof cometh an

example; for the said Josephine was summoned to a final conference with the baroness and Monsieur Perrin.

"Don't be long," said Rose, as Josephine glided away, and (taking the precaution to wait till she was quite out

"I will try," said Riviere. "I'll tell you what they say of you: that you are too young to love."

This point settled, she suggested that, if he could not amuse her, he had better do THE NEXT BEST THING,

"I think I had better not talk at all," said he, "for I am no match for such a nimble tongue. And then you are so

"Ay, do: draw it as it appeared on a late occasion: with two ladies flying out of it, and you rooted with

"Not on mine; not on mine. How terrified you wereha, ha! and how terrified we should have been if you

had not. Listen: once upon a timedon't be alarmed: it was long after Noaha frightened hare ran by a

pond; the frogs splashed in the water, smit with awe. Then she said, 'Ah ha! there are people in the world I

frighten in my turn; I am the thunderbolt of war.' Excuse my quoting La Fontaine: I am not in 'Charles the

"And it's a great mercy, for when you grow up, you will be too much for me, that is evident. Come, then,

"Monsieur, shall I make you a confession? You will not be angry: I could not support your displeasure. I have

a strange inclination to walk up and down this terrace while you go and draw that tree in the Pleasaunce."

He had learned to obey all her caprices; so he went and placed himself on the west side of the oak and took

out his sketchbook, and worked zealously and rapidly. He had done the outlines of the tree and was

finishing in detail a part of the huge trunk, when his eyes were suddenly dazzled: in the middle of the rugged

bark, deformed here and there with great wartlike bosses, and wrinkled, seamed, and ploughed all over with

age, burst a bit of variegated color; bright as a poppy on a dungeon wall, it glowed and glittered out through a

large hole in the brown bark; it was Rose's face peeping. To our young lover's eye how divine it shone! None

of the half tints of common flesh were there, but a thing all rose, lily, sapphire, and soul. His pencil dropped,

his mouth opened, he was downright dazzled by the glowing, bewitching face, sparkling with fun, in the

gaunt tree. Tell me, ladies, did she know, even at that age, the value of that sombre frame to her brightness?

The moment she found herself detected, the gaunt old tree rang musical with a crystal laugh, and out came

the archdryad. "I have been there all the time. How solemn you looked! Now for the result of such profound

study." He showed her his work; she altered her tone. "Oh, how clever!" she cried, "and how rapid! What a

facility you have! Monsieur is an artist," said she gravely; "I will be more respectful," and she dropped him a

"That I will, now it is worth having: dear me, I never reckoned on that. Finish it directly," cried this

"Because art loves contrasts. The tree is a picture of age and gradual decay; by its side then I must place a

She did not answer, but made a sort of defiant pirouette, and went where she was bid, and stood there with

her back to the artist. "That will never do," said he; "you really must be so good as to turn round."

"Oh, very well." And when she came round, behold her color had risen mightily. Flattery is sweet.

And so he drew her, and kept looking off the paper at her, and had a right in his character of artist to look her

full in the face; and he did so with long lingering glances. To be sure, they all began severe and businesslike

with halfclosed eyes, and the peculiar hostile expression art puts on; but then they always ended open

eyed, and so full and tender, that she, poor girl, who was all real gold, though sham brass, blushed and

blushed, and did not know which way to look not to be scorched up by his eye like a tender flower, or blandly

absorbed like the pearly dew. Ah, happy hour! ah, happy days of youth and innocence and first love!

The usually quiet Josephine came flying from the house, pale and agitated, and clung despairingly to Rose,

I shall take leave to relate in my own words what had just occurred to agitate her so. When she entered her

mother's room, she found the baroness and Perrin the notary seated watching for her. She sat down after the

He began by confessing to them that he had not overcome the refractory creditor without much trouble; and

that he had since learned there was another, a larger creditor, likely to press for payment or for sale of the

estate. The baroness was greatly troubled by this communication: the notary remained cool as a cucumber,

and keenly observant. After a pause he went on to say all this had caused him grave reflections. "It seems,"

said he with cool candor, "a sad pity the estate should pass from a family that has held it since the days of

"Now God forbid!" cried the baroness, lifting her eyes and her quivering hands to heaven.

The notary held the republican creed in all its branches. "Providence, madame, does not interferein matters

of business," said he. "Nothing but money can save the estate. Let us then be practical. Has any means

"No. What means can there be? The estate is mortgaged to its full value: so they say, at least."

"And they say true," put in the notary quickly. "But do not distress yourself, madame: confide in me."

"Madame, up to the present time I have no complaint to make of Heaven. I am on the rise: here,

mademoiselle, is a gimcrack they have given me;" and he unbuttoned his overcoat, and showed them a piece

of tricolored ribbon and a clasp. "As for me, I look to 'the solid;' I care little for these things," said he,

swelling visibly, "but the world is dazzled by them. However, I can show you something better." He took out

a letter. "This is from the Minister of the Interior to a client of mine: a promise I shall be the next prefect; and

the present prefectI am happy to sayis on his deathbed. Thus, madame, your humble servant in a few

short months will be notary no longer, but prefect; I shall then sell my office of notary: and I flatter myself

"Then, as now, monsieur," said the baroness politely, "we shall recognize your merit. But"

"I understand, madame: like me you look to 'the solid.' Thus then it is; I have money."

"I have a good deal of money. But it is dispersed in a great many small but profitable investments: to call it in

suddenly would entail some loss. Nevertheless, if you and my young lady there have ever so little of that

friendly feeling towards me of which I have so much towards you, all my investments shall be called in, and

two thirds of your creditors shall be paid off at once. A single client of mine, no less a man than the

Commandant Raynal, will, I am sure, advance me the remaining third at an hour's notice; and so Beaurepaire

chateau, park, estate, and grounds, down to the old oak tree, shall be saved; and no power shall alienate

"But what are we to do for this?" inquired Josephine calmly, "for it seems to me that it can only be effected

"I thank you, mademoiselle, for your penetration in seeing that I must make sacrifices. I would never have

told you, but you have seen it; and I do not regret that you have seen it. Madame mademoisellethose

sacrifices appear little to me; will seem nothing; will never be mentioned, or even alluded to after this day, if

you, on your part, will lay me under a far heavier obligation, if in short"here the contemner of things

unsubstantial reopened his coat, and brought his ribbon to light again"if you, madame, will accept me for

"Can you think so? Answer Monsieur Perrin. He has just done us a kind office, mother."

"I shall remember it. Monsieur, permit me to regret that having lately won our gratitude and esteem, you have

taken this way of modifying those feelings. But after all," she added with gentle courtesy, "we may well put

your good deeds against thisthis error in judgment. The balance is in your favor still, provided you never

return to this topic. Come, is it agreed?" The baroness's manner was full of tact, and the latter sentences were

said with an open kindliness of manner. There was nothing to prevent Perrin from dropping the subject, and

remaining good friends. A gentleman or a lover would have so done. Monsieur Perrin was neither. He said

The tone and the words were each singly too much for the baroness's pride. She answered coldly but

"There are men," continued Josephine without noticing him, "who look to but one thinginterest. It was an

offer made politely in the way of business: decline it in the same spirit; that is what you have to do."

"Monsieur, you hear what mademoiselle says? She carries politeness a long way. After all it is a good fault.

Well, monsieur, I need not answer you, since Mademoiselle de Beaurepaire has answered you; but I detain

Strictly a weasel has no business with the temper of a tiger, but this one had, and the long vindictiveness of a

Corsican. "Ah! my little lady, you turn me out of the house, do you?" cried he, grinding his teeth.

"A man!" snarled Perrin, "whom none ever yet insulted without repenting it, and repenting in vain. You are

under obligations to me, and you think to turn me out! You are at my mercy, and you think I will let you turn

me to your door! In less than a mouth I will stand here, and say to you, Beaurepaire is mine. Begone from it!"

When he uttered these terrible words, each of which was like a swordstroke to the baroness, the old lady,

whose courage was not equal to her strength, shrank over the side of her armchair, and cried

piteously"He threatens me! he threatens me! I am frightened;" and put up her trembling hands, for the

notary's eloquence, being accompanied with abundance of gesture, bordered upon physical violence. His

brutality received an unexpected check. Imagine that a sparrowhawk had seized a trembling pigeon, and that

a royal falcon swooped, and with one lightninglike stroke of body and wing, buffeted him away, and sent

him gaping and glaring and grasping at pigeonless air with his claws. So swift and majestic, Josephine de

Beaurepaire came from her chair with one gesture of her body between her mother and the notary, who was

advancing with arms folded in a brutal, menacing waynot the Josephine we have seen her, the calm

languid beauty, but the demoiselle de Beaurepaireher great heart on fireher blood upnot her own

only, but all the blood of all the De Beaurepairespale as ashes with great wrath, her purple eyes on fire,

and her whole pantherlike body full of spring. "Wretch! you dare to insult her, and before me! Arriere

miserable! or I soil my hand with your face." And her hand was up with the word, up, up, higher it seemed

than ever a hand was raised before. And if he had hesitated one moment, I really believe it would have come

down; not heavily, perhapsthe lightning is not heavy. But there was no need. The towering threat and the

flaming eye and the swift rush buffeted the caitiff away: he recoiled. She followed him as he went, strong,

FOR A MOMENT OR TWO, as Hercules, beautiful and terrible as Michael driving Satan. He dared not, or

could not stand before her: he writhed and cowered and recoiled all down the room, while she marched upon

"You shall both be turned out of Beaurepaire by me, and forever; I swear it, parole de Perrin."

He had not been gone a minute when Josephine's courage oozed away, and she ran, or rather tottered, into the

Pleasaunce, and clung like a drowning thing to Rose, and, when Edouard took her hand, she clung to him.

They had to gather what had happened how they could: the account was constantly interrupted with her sobs

and self reproaches. She said she had ruined all she loved: ruined her sister, ruined her mother, ruined the

house of Beaurepaire. Why was she ever born? Why had she not died three years ago? (Query, what was the

date at which Camille's letters suddenly stopped?) "That coward," said she, "has the heart of a fiend. He told

us he never forgave an affront; and he holds our fate in his hands. He will drive our mother from her home,

and she will die: murdered by her own daughter. After all, why did I refuse him? What should I have

sacrificed by marrying him? Rose, write to him, and saysayI was taken by surprise, II"a violent

Rose flung her arms round her neck. "My beautiful Josephine marry that creature? Let house and lands go a

thousand times sooner. I love my sister a thousand times better than the walls of this or any other house."

"Come, come," cried Edouard, "you are forgetting ME all this time. Do you really think I am the sort of man

to stand by with my hands in my pockets, and let her marry that cur, or you be driven out of Beaurepaire?

"I'll soon show you. From this hour forth it is a duel between that Perrin and me. Now,

JosephineRosedon't you cry and fret like that: but just look quietly on, and enjoy the fight, both of you."

Josephine shook her head with a sad smile: but Rose delivered herself thus, after a sob, "La, yes; I forgot: we

Edouard rose to the situation: he saw that Perrin would lose no time; and that every day, or even hour, might

be precious. He told them that the first thing he must do for them was to leave the company he loved best on

earth, and run down to the town to consult Picard the rival notary: he would be back by suppertime, when he

hoped they would do him the honor, in a matter of such importance, to admit him to a family council.

Josephine assented with perfect simplicity; Rose with a deep blush, for she was too quick not to see all the

It was a wet evening, and a sad and silent party sat round a wood fire in the great dininghall. The baroness

was almost prostrated by the scene with Perrin; and a sombre melancholy and foreboding weighed on all their

spirits, when presently Edouard Riviere entered briskly, and saluted them all profoundly, and opened the

proceedings with a little favorite pomposity. "Madame the baroness, and you Monsieur Aubertin, who honor

me with your esteem, and you Mademoiselle de Beaurepaire, whom I adore, and you Mademoiselle Rose,

whom I hoped to be permittedyou have this day done me the honor to admit me as your adviser. I am here

to lay my plans before you. I believe, madame, I have already convinced you that your farms are underlet,

and your property lowered in value by general mismanagement; this was doubtless known to Perrin, and set

him scheming. Well, I rely on the same circumstance to defeat him. I have consulted Picard and shown him

the rentroll and balancesheet I had already shown you. He has confessed that the estate is worth more than

its debts, so capitalists can safely advance the money. Tomorrow morning, then, I ride to Commandant

Raynal for a week's leave of absence; then, armed with Picard's certificate, shall proceed to my uncle and ask

him to lend the money. His estate is very small compared with Beaurepaire, but he has always farmed it

himself. 'I'll have no gobetween,' says he, 'to impoverish both self and soil.' He is also a bit of a

misanthrope, and has made me one. I have a very poor opinion of my fellowcreatures, very."

"Well, but," said Rose, "if he is all that, he will not sympathize with us, who have so mismanaged

"Permit me, Josephine," said he. "Natural history steps in here, and teaches by me, its mouthpiece. A

misanthrope hates all mankind, but is kind to every individual, generally too kind. A philanthrope loves the

whole human race, but dislikes his wife, his mother, his brother, and his friends and acquaintances.

Misanthrope is the potato: rough and repulsive outside, but good to the core. Philanthrope is a peach: his

manner all velvet and bloom, his words sweet juice, his heart of hearts a stone. Let me read Philanthrope's

"And so," said he, "my misanthrope will say plenty of biting words, which, bytheby, will not hurt you,

who will not hear them, only me,and then he'll lend us the money, and Beaurepaire will be free, and I shall

Then came a delicious hour to Edouard Riviere. Young and old poured out their glowing thanks and praises

The baroness was especially grateful, and expressed a gentle regret that she could see no way of showing her

gratitude except in words. "What can we do for this little angel?" said she, turning to Josephine.

"Leave that to me, mamma," replied Josephine, turning her lovely eyes full on Edouard, with a look the

She sat and watched Josephine and Edouard with comical severity all the rest of the time she was there; and,

when she retired, she kissed Rose affectionately, but whispered her eldest daughter, "I hope you are not

"What will the world come to?" said the baroness out loud, and retreated with a sour glance at all of

She had not been gone five minutes when a letter came by messenger to Edouard. It was from Picard. He read

"Perrin has been with me, to raise money. He wants it in forty eight hours. Promises good legal security. I

"The doublefaced traitor!" cried Edouard. "Stay; wait a minute. Let us read it to an end."

"This promise is, of course, merely to prevent his going elsewhere. At the end of the fortyeight hours I shall

begin to make difficulties. Meantime, as Perrin is no fool, you had better profit to the full by this temporary

"Well done, Picard!" shouted Edouard. "Notary cut notary. I won't lose an hour. I'll start at five; Commandant

Accordingly, at five he was on the road; Raynal's quarters lay in the direct line to his uncle's place. He found

the commandant at home, and was well received. Raynal had observed his zeal, and liked his manners. He

gave him the week's leave, and kept him to breakfast, and had his horse well fed. At eight o'clock Edouard

rode out of the premises in high spirits. At the very gate he met a gaunt figure riding in on a squab pony. It

was Perrin the notary coming in hot haste to his friend and employer, Commandant Raynal.

After Edouard's departure, Josephine de Beaurepaire was sad, and weighed down with presentiments. She felt

as soldiers sometimes feel who know the enemy is undermining them; no danger on the surface; nothing that

can be seen, met, baffled, attacked, or evaded; in daily peril, all the more horrible that it imitates perfect

serenity, they await the fatal match. She imparted her misgivings to Aubertin; but he assured her she

"We have a friend still more zealous and active than our enemy; believe me, your depression is really caused

by his absence; we all miss the contact of that young heroic spirit; we are a body, and he its soul."

Josephine was silent, for she said to herself, "Why should I dash their spirits? they are so happy and

Edouard had animated Rose and Aubertin with his own courage, and had even revived the baroness.

It had been agreed between him and Picard that the latter should communicate with Dr. Aubertin direct,

should anything fresh occur. And on the third day after Edouard's departure, Picard sent up a private

message: "Perrin has just sent me a line to say he will not trouble us, as he is offered the money in another

The next day brought a long letter from Edouard to Rose, telling her he had found his uncle crusty at first; but

at last with a little patience, and the cooperation of Martha, his uncle's old servant, and his nurse, the old boy

The contents of this letter were conveyed to the baroness. The house brightened under it: the more so that

there was some hope of their successful champion returning in person next day. Meantime Perrin had applied

to Raynal for the immediate loan of a large sum of money on excellent security. Raynal refused plump. Perrin

But the next day he returned to the charge with another proposal: and the nature of this second proposal we

The day Edouard was expected opened deliciously. It was a balmy morning, and tempted the sisters out

before breakfast. They strolled on the south terrace with their arms round each other's waists, talking about

Edouard, and wondering whether they should really see him before night. Rose owned she had missed him,

Further discussion of that nice point was stopped by the baroness coming out, leaning on Dr. Aubertin.

Thenhow we young people of an unceremonious age should have staredthe demoiselles de Beaurepaire,

inasmuch as this was their mother's first appearance, lowered their fair heads at the same time like young

poplars bowing to the wind, and so waited reverently till she had slightly lifted her hands, and said, "God

It was done in a moment on both sides, but full of grace and piety, and the charm of ancient manners.

"How did our dear mother sleep?" inquired Josephine. Aubertin interposed with a theory that she slept very

"I slept," said the baroness, "and I wish I had not for I dreamed an ugly dream." They all gathered round her,

"I thought I was with you all in this garden. I was admiring the flowers and the trees, and the birds were

singing with all their might. Suddenly a dark cloud came; it cleared almost directly; but flowers, trees, sky,

and birds were gone now, and I could see the chateau itself no more. It means that I was dead. An ugly

"But only a dream, dear mother," said Rose: then with a sweet, consoling smile, "See, here is your terrace and

"And here are your daughters," said Josephine; and they both came and kissed her to put their existence out

of doubt. "And here is your Aesculapius," said Aubertin. "And here is your Jacintha."

"Breakfast, madame," said Jacintha. "Breakfast, mesdemoiselles. Breakfast, monsieur:" dropping each a

"She has turned the conversation very agreeably," said the baroness, and went in leaning on her old friend.

But the sisters lagged behind and took several turns in silence. Rose was the first to speak. "How superstitious

"No; but you looked volumes at me while mamma was telling her dream. For my part I feel sure love is

stronger than hate; and we shall stay all our days in this sweet place: and O Josey! am I not a happy girl that

At this moment Jacintha came running towards them. They took it for a summons to breakfast, and moved to

meet her. But they soon saw she was almost as white as her apron, and she came openmouthed and

wringing her hands. "What shall I do? what shall I do? Oh, don't let my poor mistress know!"

They soon got from her that Dard had just come from the town, and learned the chateau was sold, and the

proprietor coming to take possession this very day. The poor girls were stupefied by the blow.

If anything, Josephine felt it worst. "It is my doing," she gasped, and tottered fainting. Rose supported her:

she shook it off by a violent effort. "This is no time for weakness," she cried, wildly; "come to the

Pleasaunce; there is water there. I love my mother. What will I not do for her? I love my mother."

Muttering thus wildly she made for the pond in the Pleasaunce. She had no sooner turned the angle of the

chateau than she started back with a convulsive cry, and her momentary feebleness left her directly; she

crouched against the wall and griped the ancient cornerstone with her tender hand till it powdered, and she

spied with dilating eye into the Pleasaunce, Rose and Jacintha panting behind her. Two men stood with their

backs turned to her looking at the oaktree; one an officer in full uniform, the other the human snake Perrin.

Though the soldier's back was turned, his offhanded, peremptory manner told her he was inspecting the

"The baroness! the baroness!" cried Jacintha, with horror. They looked round, and the baroness was at their

They glanced at one another, and, idle as the attempt was, the habit of sparing her prevailed, and they flung

"Josephine is not well," said Rose. "She wants to go in." Both girls faced the baroness.

"Jacintha," said the baroness, "fetch Dr. Aubertin. There, I have sent her away. So now tell me, why do you

drive me back so? Something has happened," and she looked keenly from one to the other.

"Let me see. So there are. Call Jacintha back that I may order these people out of my premises." Josephine

"It is impossible. HE was to buy it for usthere is some mistake what man would kill a poor old woman

like me? I will speak to this gentleman: he wears a sword. Soldiers do not trample on women. Ah! that man."

The notary, attracted by her voice, was coming towards her, a paper in his hand.

Raynal coolly inspected the tree, and tapped it with his scabbard, and left Perrin to do the dirty work. The

notary took off his hat, and, with a malignant affectation of respect, presented the baroness with a paper.

The poor old thing took it with a courtesy, the effect of habit, and read it to her daughters as well as her

emotion permitted, and the language, which was as new to her as the dialect of Cat Island to Columbus.

"Jean Raynal, domiciled by right, and lodging in fact at the Chateau of Beaurepaire, acting by the pursuit and

diligence of Master Perrin, notary; I, Guillaume Le Gras, bailiff, give notice to Josephine Aglae St. Croix de

Beaurepaire, commonly called the Baroness de Beaurepaire, having no known place of abode"

"but lodging wrongfully at the said Chateau of Beaurepaire, that she is warned to decamp within twentyfour

"failing which that she will be thereto enforced in the manner for that case made and provided with the aid of

"Ah! no, messieurs, pray do not use force. I am frightened enough already. I did not know I was doing

anything wrong. I have been here thirty years. But, since Beaurepaire is sold, I comprehend perfectly that I

must go. It is just. As you say, I am not in my own house. I will go, gentlemen, I will go. Whither shall I go,

my children? The house where you were born to me is ours no longer. Excuse me, gentlementhis is

nothing to you. Ah! sir, you have revenged yourself on two weak womenmay Heaven forgive you!"

The notary turned on his heel. The poor baroness, all whose pride the iron law, with its iron gripe, had

crushed into dismay and terror, appealed to him. "O sir! send me from the house, but not from the soil where

my Henri is laid! is there not in all this domain a corner where she who was its mistress may lie down and

She turned towards Raynal and seemed to be going towards him with outstretched arms. But Rose checked

her with fervor. "Mamma! do not lower yourself. Ask nothing of these wretches. Let us lose all, but not

The baroness had not her daughter's spirit. Her very person tottered under this blow. Josephine supported her,

and the next moment Aubertin came out and hastened to her side. Her head fell back; what little strength she

Commandant Raynal was amazed at all this, and asked what the deuce was the matter.

"But I am not," replied the soldier. "You never told me there was to be all this fuss."

He then dismissed his friend rather abruptly and strode up and down the Pleasaunce. He twisted his

mustaches, muttered, and "pested," and was ill at ease. Accustomed to march gayly into a town, and see the

regiment, that was there before, marching gayly out, or vice versa, and to strike tents twice a quarter at least,

he was little prepared for such a scene as this. True, he did not hear all the baroness's words, but more than

one tone of sharp distress reached him where he stood, and the action of the whole scene was so expressive,

there was little need of words. He saw the notice given; the dismay it caused, and the old lady turn

imploringly towards him with a speaking gesture, and above all he saw her carried away, half fainting, her

hands clasped, her reverend face pale. He was not a man of quick sensibilities. He did not thoroughly take the

"Confound it," thought he, "I am the proprietor. They all say so. Instead of which I feel like a thief. Fancy her

Presently it occurred to him that the shortness of the notice might have much to do with her distress. "These

notaries," said he to himself, "understand nothing save law: women have piles of baggage, and can't strike

tents directly the order comes, as we can. Perhaps if I were to give them twentyfour days instead of

With this the commandant fell into a brown study. Now each of us has his attitude of brown study. One runs

about the room like hyena in his den; another stands stately with folded arms (this one seldom thinks to the

purpose); another sits crosslegged, brows lowered: another must put his head into his hand, and so keep it

up to thinking mark: another must twiddle a bit of string, or a key; grant him this, he can hatch an epic. This

commandant must draw himself up very straight, and walk six paces and back very slowly, till the problem

Now whilst he was guarding the old oaktree, for all the world as if it had been the gate of the Tuileries or

the barracks, Josephine de Beaurepaire came suddenly out from the house and crossed the Pleasaunce: her

Raynal recognized her as one of the family; and after a moment's reflection followed her into the park with

the goodnatured intention of offering her a month to clear out instead of a day.

But it was not so easy to catch her: she flew. He had to take his scabbard in his left hand and fairly run after

her. Before he could catch her, she entered the little chapel. He came up and had his foot on the very step to

Josephine had thrown herself on her knees and was praying aloud: praying to the Virgin with sighs and sobs

and all her soul: wrestling so in prayer with a dead saint as by a strange perversity men cannot or will not

wrestle with Him, who alone can hear a million prayers at once from a million different places,can realize

and be touched with a sense of all man's infirmities in a way no single saint with his partial experience of

them can realize and be touched by them; who unasked suspended the laws of nature that had taken a

stranger's only son, and she a widow; and wept at another great human sorrow, while the eyes of all the great

Well, the soldier stood, his right foot on the step and his sword in his left hand, transfixed: listening gravely

"O Madonna! hear me: it is for my mother's life. She will dieshe will die. You know she cannot live if she

is taken away from her house and from this holy place where she prays to you this many years. O Queen of

Heaven! put out your hand to us unfortunates! Virgin, hear a virgin: mother, listen to a child who prays for

her mother's life! The doctor says she will not live away from here. She is too old to wander over the world.

Let them drive us forth: we are young, but not her, mother, oh, not her! Forgive the cruel men that do this

thing!they are like those who crucified your Son they know not what they are doing. But you, Queen of

Heaven, you know all; and, sweet mother, if you have kind sentiments towards me, poor Josephine, ah! show

them now: for you know that it was I who insulted that wicked notary, and it is out of hatred to me he has

sold our beloved house to a hard stranger. Look down on me, a child who loves her mother, yet will destroy

her unless you pity me and help me. Oh! what shall I say?what shall I do? mercy! mercy! for my poor

The soldier withdrew his foot quietly. Her words had knocked against his very breastbone. He marched

slowly to and fro before the chapel, upright as a dart, and stiff as a ramrod, and actually pale: for even our

nerves have their habits; a woman's passionate grief shook him as a cannon fired over his head could not.

Josephine little thought who was her sentinel. She came to the door at last, and there he was marching

backwards and forwards, upright and stiff. She gave a faint scream and drew back with a shudder at the sight

of their persecutor. She even felt faintish at him, as women will in such cases.

Not being very quick at interpreting emotion, Raynal noticed her alarm, but not her repugnance; he saluted

her with military precision by touching his cap as only a soldier can, and said rather gently for him, "A word

"Don't be frightened," said Raynal, in a tone not very reassuring. "I propose an armistice."

"I am at your disposal, sir," said Josephine, now assuming a calmness that was belied by the long swell of her

"How can I do otherwise, sir? yet perhaps I ought not. You did not know us. You just wanted an estate, I

"Well, I was in position on your flank when the notary delivered his fire. And I saw the old woman's

"When you came flying out I followed to say a good word to you. I could not catch you. I listened while you

prayed to the Virgin. That was not a soldierlike trick, you will say. I confess it."

"No! by St. Denis; quite the contrary. Well, to the point. Young lady, you love your mother."

"Now look here, young lady, I had a mother; I loved her in my humdrum way very dearly. She promised me

faithfully not to die till I should be a colonel; and she went and died before I was a commandant, even; just

"Then I pity you," murmured Josephine; and her soft purple eye began to dwell on him with less repugnance.

"Thank you for that word, my good young lady," said Raynal. "Now, I declare, you are the first that has said

that word to me about my losing the true friend, that nursed me on her knee, and pinched and pinched to

"I shall feel honored," said Josephine, politely, but with considerable restraint.

Then he told her all about how he had vexed her when he was a boy, and gone for a soldier, though she was

all for trade, and how he had been the more anxious to see her enjoy his honors and success. "And,

mademoiselle," said he, appealingly, "the day this epaulet was put on my shoulder in Italy, she died in Paris.

The soldier's mustache quivered, and he turned away brusquely, and took several steps. Then he came back to

Josephine, and to his infinite surprise saw that her purple eyes were thick with tears. "What? you are within

"Monsieur, our situations are so alike, I may well spare some little sympathy for your misfortune."

"Thank you, my good young lady. Well, then, to business; while you were praying to the Virgin, I was saying

"Oh! it was nothing beautiful like the things you said to the other. Can I turn phrases? I saw her behind her

little counter in the Rue Quincampoix; for she is a woman of the people, is my mother. I saw myself come to

the other side of the counter, and I said, 'Look here, mother, here is the devil to pay about this new house. The

old woman talks of dying if we take her from her home, and the young one weeps and prays to all the saints

in paradise; what shall we do, eh?' Then I thought my old woman said to me, 'Jean, you are a soldier, a sort of

vagabond; what do you want with a house in France? you who are always in a tent in Italy or Austria, or who

knows where. Have you the courage to give honest folk so much pain for a caprice? Come now,' says she,

'the lady is of my age, say you, and I can't keep your fine house, because God has willed it otherwise; so give

her my place; so then you can fancy it is me you have set down at your hearth: that will warm your heart up a

bit, you little scamp,' said my old woman in her rough way. She was not wellbred like you, mademoiselle. A

"She was a woman of God's own making, if she was like that," cried Josephine, the tears now running down

"Ah, that she was, she was. So between her and me it is settled what are you crying for NOW? why, you

have won the day; the field is yours; your mother and you remain; I decamp." He whipped his scabbard up

with his left hand, and was going off without another word, if Josephine had not stopped him.

"But, sir, what am I to think? what am I to hope? it is impossible that in this short interviewand we must

"True; well, we will talk over that, tomorrow; but being turned out of the house, that was the bayonet thrust

to the old lady. So you run in and put her heart at rest about it. Tell her that she may live and die in this house

But when she had taken three steps she paused, and seemed irresolute. She turned, and in a moment she had

glided to Raynal again and had taken his hand before he could hinder her, and pressed two velvet lips on it,

and was away again, her cheeks scarlet at what she had done, and her wet eyes beaming with joy. She

skimmed the grass like a lapwing; you would have taken her at this minute for Rose, or for Virgil's Camilla;

at the gate she turned an instant and clasped her hands together, with such a look, to show Raynal she blessed

"Aha, my lady," said he, as he watched her fly, "behold you changed a little since you came out." He was

soon on the high road marching down to the town at a great rate, his sword clanking, and thus ran his

thoughts: "This does one good; you are right, my old woman. Your son's bosom feels as warm as toast. Long

live the fivefranc pieces! And they pretend money cannot make a fellow happy. They lie; it is because they

Meantime at the chateau, as still befalls in emergencies and trials, the master spirit came out and took its real

place. Rose was now the mistress of Beaurepaire; she set Jacintha, and Dard, and the doctor, to pack up

everything of value in the house. "Do it this moment!" she cried; "once that notary gets possession of the

house, it may be too late. Enough of folly and helplessness. We have fooled away house and lands; our

The moment she had set the others to work, she wrote a single line to Riviere to tell him the chateau and

lands were sold, and would he come to Beaurepaire at once? She ran with it herself to Bigot's auberge, the

The baroness was seated in her armchair, moaning and wringing her hands, and Rose was nursing and

soothing her, and bathing her temples with her last drop of eau de Cologne, and trying in vain to put some of

her own courage into her, when in came Josephine radiant with happiness, crying "Joy! joy! joy!" and told

her strange tale, with this difference, that she related her own share in it briefly and coldly, and was more

eloquent than I about the strange soldier's goodness, and the interest her mother had awakened in his heart.

And she told about the old woman in the Rue Quincampoix, her rugged phrases, and her noble, tender heart.

The baroness, deaf to Rose's consolations, brightened up directly at Josephine's news, and at her glowing

face, as she knelt pouring the good news, and hope, and comfort, point blank into her. But Rose chilled them

"It is a generous offer," said, she, "but one we cannot accept. We cannot live under so great an obligation. Is

all the generosity to be on the side of this Bonapartist? Are we noble in name only? What would our father

"No, mother," continued Rose; "let house and land go, but honor and true nobility remain."

"Mamma," cried the enthusiastic girl, "we need depend on no one. Josephine and I have youth and spirit."

"Why, his uncle has a farm, and we have had recourse to him for help: better a farmhouse than an almshouse,

Josephine winced and held up her hand deprecatingly. The baroness paled: it was a terrible stroke of language

to come from her daughter. She said sternly, "There is no answer to that. We were born nobles, let us die

"Forgive me, mother," said Rose, kneeling. "I was wrong; it is for me to obey you, not to dictate. I speak no

more." And, after kissing her mother and Josephine, she crept away, but she left her words sticking in both

"HIS uncle," said the shrewd old lady. "She is no longer a child; and she says his uncle. This makes me half

suspect it is her that dear boyJosephine, tell me the truth, which of you is it?"

"Dear mother, who should it be? they are nearly of an age: and what man would not love our sweet Rose, that

The baroness sighed deeply; and was silent. After awhile she said, "The moment they have a lover, he

detaches their hearts from their poor old mother. She is no longer what my Josephine is to me."

"Mamma, she is my superior. I see it more and more every day. She is proud: she is just; she looks at both

"And that is the daughter for me," cried the poor baroness, opening her arms wide to her.

The next morning when they were at breakfast, in came Jacintha to say the officer was in the diningroom

and wanted to speak with the young lady he talked to yesterday. Josephine rose and went to him. "Well,

mademoiselle," said he gayly, "the old woman was right. Here I have just got my orders to march: to leave

France in a month. A pretty business it would have been if I had turned your mother out. So you see there is

"Forgive us. But we feel that would be unjust to you, humiliating to us: the poor are sometimes proud."

"Of course they are," said Raynal: "and I don't want to offend your pride. Confound the house: why did I go

and buy it? It is no use to me except to give pain to worthy people." He then, after a moment's reflection,

asked her if the matter could not be arranged by some third party, a mutual friend. "Then again," said he, "I

"Yes, sir," said Josephine; "we have one friend, who knows you, and esteems you highly."

She wanted to name Edouard; but she hesitated, and asked her conscience if it was fair to name him: and

while she blushed and hesitated, lo and behold a rival referee hove in sight. Raynal saw him, suddenly opened

Perrin had ridden up to complete the exodus of the De Beaurepaires, and was strolling about inspecting the

Josephine almost screamed"What are you doing? that is our enemy, our bitterest enemy. He has only sold

you the estate to spite us, not for the love of you. I hadwe hadwe mortified his vanity. It was not our

fault: he is a viper. Sir, pray, pray, pray be on your guard against his counsels."

These words spoken with rare fire and earnestness carried conviction: but it was too late to recall the

invitation. The notary entered the room, and was going to bow obsequiously to Raynal, when he caught sight

of Josephine, and almost started. Raynal, after Josephine's warning, was a little at a loss how to make him

available; and even that short delay gave the notary's one foible time to lead him into temptation. "Our foibles

"So," said he, "you have taken possession, commandant. These military men are prompt, are they not,

Perrin kept his selfcommand. "It is only as Commandant Raynal's agent I presume to address so

distinguished a lady: in that character I must inform you that whatever movables you have removed are

"Come, come, not so fast," cried Raynal; "bother the chairs and tables! that is not the point."

"Commandant," said the notary with dignity, "have I done anything to merit this? have I served your interests

"No, no, my good fellow; but you exceed your powers. Just now I want you to take orders, not give them."

"That is only just," said Perrin, "and I recall my hasty remark: excuse the susceptibility of a professional man,

"All right," said Raynal heartily. "Well, thenI want mademoiselle and her family to stay here while I go to

Egypt with the First Consul. Mademoiselle makes difficulties; it offends her delicacy."

"Then you have pitched upon the wrong man," said Perrin bluntly. He added obsequiously, "I am too much

your friend. She has been talking you over, no doubt; but you have a friend, an Ulysses, who is deaf to the

siren's voice. I will be no party to such a transaction. I will not cooperate to humbug my friend and rob him

If Josephine was inferior to the notary in petty sharpness, she was his superior in the higher kinds of sagacity;

and particularly in instinctive perception of character. Her eye flashed with delight at the line Perrin was now

taking with Raynal. The latter speedily justified her expectations: he just told Perrin to be off, and send him a

"A more accommodating notary!" screamed Perrin, stung to madness by this reproach. "There is not a more

accommodating notary in Europe. Ungrateful man! is this the return for all my zeal, my integrity, my

unselfishness? Is there another agent in the world who would have let such a bargain as Beaurepaire fall into

your hands? It serves me right for deviating from the rules of business. Send me another agentoh!"

The honest soldier was confused. The lawyer's eloquence overpowered him. He felt guilty. Josephine saw his

simplicity, and made a cut with a woman's twoedged sword. "Sir," said she coolly, "do you not see it is an

affair of money? This is his way of saying, Pay me handsomely for so unusual a commission."

"And I'll pay him double," cried Raynal, catching the idea; "don't be alarmed, I'll pay you for it."

"Nor, for a notary's. Go to h, and send in your bill!" roared the soldier in a fury. "Well, will you go?" and

"Me! I never cryhardly. I hid my face because I could not help laughing. You frightened me, sir," said she:

"No, no; a good soldier never leathers a civilian if he can possibly help it; it looks so bad; and before a lady!"

"Oh, I would have forgiven you, monsieur," said Josephine benignly, and something like a little sun danced

"Now, mademoiselle, since my referee has proved a pig, it is your turn. Choose you a mutual friend."

Josephine hesitated. "Ours is so young. You know him very well. You are doubtless the commandant of

whom I once heard him speak with such admiration: his name is Riviere, Edouard Riviere."

"Know him? he is my best officer, out and out." And without a moment's hesitation he took Edouard's present

address, and accepted that youthful Daniel as their referee; then looked at his watch and marched off to his

The notary went home gnashing his teeth. His sweet revenge was turned to wormwood this day. Raynal's

parting commissions rang in his ear; in his bitter mood the want of logical sequence in the two orders

He sent in a thundering bill the very next morning, but postponed the other commission till his dying day.

As for Josephine, she came into the drawingroom beaming with love and happiness, and after kissing both

her mother and Rose with gentle violence, she let them know the strange turn things had taken.

Rose blushed and bent over her work; and wondered how Edouard would discharge so grave an office.

The matter approached a climax; for, as the reader is aware, Edouard was hourly expected at Beaurepaire.

He did not come; but it was not his fault. On receiving Rose's letter he declined to stay another hour at his

He flung himself on his horse; and, before he was well settled on the stirrups, the animal shied violently at a

wheelbarrow some fool had left there; and threw Edouard on the stones of the courtyard. He jumped up in a

moment and laughed at Marthe's terror; meantime a farmservant caught the nag and brought him back to his

But when Edouard went to put his hand on the saddle, he found it would not obey him. "Wait a minute," said

"Let me see!" said the farmer, and examined the limb himself; "benumbed? yes; and no wonder. Jacques, get

"Are you mad, uncle?" cried Edouard. "I can't spare my horse, and I want no surgeon; it will be well

"I don't know what you mean, uncle; it is only numbed, ah! it hurts when I rub it."

"Broken? nonsense:" and he looked at it in piteous bewilderment: "how can it be broken? it does not hurt

"It WILL hurt: I know all about it. I broke mine fifteen years ago: fell off a haystack."

"Oh, how unfortunate I am!" cried Edouard, piteously. "But I will go to Beaurepaire all the same. I can have

The old man made a signal to his myrmidons, whom Marthe's cries had brought around, and four stout

fellows took hold of Edouard by the legs and the left shoulder and carried him upstairs raging and kicking;

Presently he began to feel faint, and so more reasonable. They cut his coat off, and put him in a loose

wrapper, and after considerable delay the surgeon came, and set his arm skilfully, and behold this ardent

It was two days after his accident. He was lying on his back, environed by slops and cursing his evil fate, and

fretting his soul out of its fleshly prison, when suddenly he heard a cheerful trombone saying three words to

Marthe, then came a clinkclank, and Marthe ushered into the sickroom the Commandant Raynal. The sick

"Ah," cried Raynal, "you see I know what it is. I have been chained down by the arm, and the leg, and all: it

"All the better. I have nothing to do; that is what kills me. I'm eating my own heart."

"Cannibal! Well, my lad, since you are in that humor, cheer up, for I bring you a job, and a tough one; it has

And the pale youth turned very red; and stared with awe at this wizard of a commandant. He thought he was

going to be called over the coals for frequenting a disaffected family. "Well," said Raynal, "I have been and

Edouard uttered a loud exclamation. "It was YOU bought it! she never told me that."

"Yes," said Raynal, "I am the culprit; and we have fixed on you to undo my work without hurting their pride

Then Raynal told him my story after his fashion. Of course I shall not go and print his version; you might like

his concise way better than my verbose; and I'm not here to hold up any man's coattails. Short as he made it,

Edouard's eyes were moist more than once; and at the end he caught Raynal's hand and kissed it. Then he

"I'll give you an hour," said Raynal, with an air of grand munificence. The only treasure he valued was time.

In less than an hour Edouard had solved the knot, to his entire satisfaction; he even gave the commandant

particular instructions for carrying out his sovereign decree. Raynal received these orders from his

subordinate with that simplicity which formed part of his amazing character, and rode home relieved of all

Mademoiselle,Before I could find time to write to our referee, news came in that he had just broken his

And if poor Edouard had seen the pale faces, and heard the faltering accents, it would have reconciled him to

his broken arm almost. This handgrenade the commandant had dropped so coolly among them, it was a long

so I rode over to him, and found him on his back, fretting for want of something to do. I told him the whole

story. He undertook the business. I have received his instructions, and next week shall be at his quarters to

clear off his arrears of business, and make acquaintance with all your family, if they permit.

As the latter part of this letter seemed to require a reply, the baroness wrote a polite note, and Jacintha sent

Dard to leave it for the commandant at Riviere's lodgings. But first they all sat down and wrote kind and

pitying and soothing letters to Edouard. Need I say these letters fell upon him like balm?

They all inquired carelessly in their postscripts what he had decided as their referee. He replied mysteriously

that they would know that in a week or two. Meantime, all he thought it prudent to tell them was that he had

Next week Raynal called on the baroness. She received him alone. They talked about Madame Raynal. The

next day he dined with the whole party, and the commandant's manners were the opposite of what the

baroness had inculcated. But she had a strong prejudice in his favor. Had her feelings been the other way his

brusquerie would have shocked her. It amused her. If people's hearts are with you, THAT for their heads!

He came every day for a week, chatted with the baroness, walked with the young ladies; and when after work

he came over in the evening, Rose used to crossexamine him, and out came such descriptions of battles and

sieges, such heroism and such simplicity mixed, as made the evening pass delightfully. On these occasions

the young ladies fixed their glowing eyes on him, and drank in his character as well as his narrative, in which

At length Rose contrived to draw him aside, and, hiding her curiosity under feigned nonchalance, asked him

"Come, that's good," said Raynal. "Why, you are the very one he warned me against the most; said you were

"Then he is a little scurrilous traitor," cried Rose, turning very red. "So that is how he talks of me behind my

back, and calls me an angel to my face; I'll pay him for this. Do tell me, commandant; never mind what HE

"Oh!" said Raynal, "for that matter, we soldiers are used to command one moment, and obey the next."

In a word, this military pedant was impracticable, and Rose gave him up in disgust, and began to call up a

sulky look when the other two sang his praises. For the old lady pronounced him charming, and Josephine

said he was a man of crystal; never said a word he did not mean, and she wished she was like him. But the

"No, thank you," said she hastily; "he is a man, a thorough man. He would make an intolerable woman. A

fine life if one had a parcel of women about, all blurting out their real minds every moment, and never

She then proposed that at his next visit they should all three make an earnest appeal to him to let them know

But Josephine begged to be excused, feared it would be hardly delicate; and said languidly that for her part

she felt they were in good hands, and prescribed patience. The baroness acquiesced, and poor Rose and her

At last, one fine day, her torments were relieved without any further exertion on her part. Jacintha bounced

into the drawing room with a notice that the commandant wanted to speak to Josephine a minute out in the

"How droll he is," said Rose; "fancy sending in for a young lady like that. Don't go, Josephine; how, he

"My dear, I no more dare disobey him than if I was one of his soldiers." And she laid down her work, and

"Well," said Rose, superciliously, "go to your commanding officer. And, O Josephine, if you are worth

Josephine kissed her, and promised to try. After the first salutation, there was a certain hesitation about

Raynal which Josephine had never seen a trace of in him before; so, to put him at his ease, and at the same

time keep her promise to Rose, she asked timidly if their mutual friend had been able to suggest anything.

"What! don't you know that I have been acting all along upon his instructions?" answered Raynal.

"Told you? why, of course not; they were secret instructions. I have obeyed one set, and now I come to the

other; and there is the difficulty, being a kind of warfare I know nothing about."

Josephine was mystified; however, she made a shrewd guess. "Do you fear a repulse from any one of us?

"But, after all," suggested Josephine, "you have only to carry out his instructions."

"That is true! that is true! but when a fellow is a coward, a poltroon, and all that sort of thing."

This repeated assertion of cowardice on the part of the living Damascus blade that stood boltupright before

her, struck Josephine as so funny that she laughed merrily, and bade him fancy it was only a fort he was

attacking instead of the terrible Josephine; whom none but heroes feared, she assured him.

This encouragement, uttered in jest, was taken in earnest. The soldier thanked her, and rallied visibly at the

comparison. "All right," said he, "as you say, it is only a fortsomademoiselle!"

"My hand! what for? there," and she put it out an inch a minute. He took it, and inspected it closely.

"Yes," said Josephine as cool as a cucumber, too sublimely and absurdly innocent even to blush.

"Because if it was, I would ask you to give it me. (I've fired the first shot anyway.)"

Josephine whipped her hand off his palm, where it lay like cream spilt on a trencher.

"No, no!" cried Josephine in distress; "I love nobody but my mother and sister: I never shall."

"Your mother," cried Raynal; "that reminds me; he told me to ask her; by Jove, I think he told me to ask her

"Ah, but my instructions! my instructions!" cried the military pedant, and ran off into the house, and left

Raynal demanded a private interview of the baroness so significantly and unceremoniously that Rose had no

alternative but to retire, but not without a glance of defiance at the bear. She ran straight, without her bonnet,

into the Pleasaunce to slake her curiosity at Josephine. That young lady was walking pensively, but turned at

So nimbly does the female mind run on its little beaten tracks, that it took no more than those syllables for

Josephine apologized for this weakness in a hero. "It wasn't his fault," said she. "It is your Edouard who set

"My Edouard? Don't talk in that horrid way: I have no Edouard. You said 'no' of course."

"Josephine, you frighten me. I know you can't say 'no' to any one; and if you don't say 'no' plump to such a

"Well, love," said Josephine, "you know our mother will relieve me of this; what a comfort to have a

They waited for Raynal's departure, to go to the baroness. They had to wait a long time. Moreover, when he

did leave the chateau he came straight into the Pleasaunce. At sight of him Rose seized Josephine tight and

bade her hold her tongue, as she could not say "no" plump to any one. Josephine was far from raising any

"Monsieur," said Rose, before he could get a word out, "even if she had not declined, I could not consent."

Raynal tapped his forehead reflectively, and drew forth from memory that he had no instructions whatever to

"Is her own consent to be dispensed with too? She declined the honor, did she not?"

"Of course she did; but this was anticipated in my instructions. I am to be sure and not take the first two or

"Insolent boy!" cried Raynal; "why, it is the referee of your own choosing, and as well behaved a lad as ever I

"My kind friends," put in Josephine with a sweet languor, "I cannot let you quarrel about a straw."

"The distinction involves a compliment, sir," said Josephine; then she turned to Rose, "Is it possible you do

not see Monsieur Raynal's strange proposal in its true light? and you so shrewd in general. He has no personal

feeling whatever in this eccentric proceeding: he wants to make us all happy, especially my mother, without

seeming to lay us under too great an obligation. Surely goodnature was never carried so far before; ha, ha!

Monsieur, I will encumber you with my friendship forever, if you permit me, but farther than that I will not

"Now look here, mademoiselle," began Raynal bluntly, "I did start with a good motive at first, that there's no

denying. But, since I have been every day in your company, and seen how good and kind you are to all about

you, I have turned selfish; and I say to myself, what a comfort such a wife as you would be to a soldier! Why,

only to have you to write letters home to, would be worth half a fellow's pay. Do you know sometimes when

I see the fellows writing their letters it gives me a knock here to think I have no one at all to write to."

"So you see I am not so mighty disinterested. Now, mademoiselle, you speak so charmingly, I can't tell what

you mean: can't tell whether you say 'no' because you could never like me, or whether it is out of delicacy,

and you only want pressing. So I say no more at present: it is a standing offer. Take a day to consider. Take

"Come to our mother, and settle that," said the impetuous sister, and nearly dragged the languid one into the

To their surprise they found the baroness walking up and down the room with unusual alacrity for a person of

her years. She no sooner caught sight of Josephine than she threw her arms open to her with joyful vivacity,

and kissed her warmly. "My love, you have saved us. I am a happy old woman. If I had all France to pick

from I could not have found a man so worthy of my Josephine. He is brave, he is handsome, he is young, he

is a rising man, he is a good son, and good sons make good husbandsandI shall die at Beaurepaire, shall

Josephine held her mother round the neck, but never spoke. After a silence she held her tighter, and cried a

"What is it?" asked the baroness confidentially of Rose, but without showing any very profound concern.

"Love him? She would be no daughter of mine if she loved a man at sight. A modest woman loves her

"She knows more of him than I knew of your father when I married him. She knows his virtues and

appreciates them. I have heard her, have I not, love? Esteem soon ripens into love when they are once fairly

"Mother, does her silence then tell you nothing? Her tearsare they nothing to you?"

"Silly child! These are tears that do not scald. The sweet soul weeps because she now for the first time sees

she will have to leave her mother. Alas! my eldest, it is inevitable. Mothers are not immortal. While they are

here it is their duty to choose good husbands for their daughters. My youngest, I believe, has chosen for

herselflike the nation. But for my eldest I choose. We shall see which chooses the best. Meantime we stay

"What CAN I say? I love my mother and I love you. You draw me different ways. I want you to be both

"Then if you will not speak out I must. Mother, do not deceive yourself: it is duty alone that keeps her silent:

"There!" cried the baroness in the same breath, triumphantly. "She esteems his character; but his person is

indifferent to her: in other words, she is a modest girl, and my daughter; and let me tell you, Rose, that but for

the misfortunes of our house, both my daughters would be married as I was, without knowing half as much of

their husbands as Josephine knows of this brave, honest, generous, filial gentleman."

"Well, then, since she will not speak out, I will. Pity me: I love her so. If this stranger, whom she does not

The baroness lost her temper at this last stroke of opposition. "Now the truth comes out, Rose; this is

"You are only waiting to leave me yourself. Yet your eldest sister, forsooth, must be kept here for you,till

then." She added more gently, "Let me advise you to retire to your own room, and examine your heart fairly.

And the young lady, who had dried her eyes the moment she was accused of selfishness, walked, head erect,

from the room. Josephine cast a deprecating glance at her mother. "Yes, my angel!" said the latter, "I was

The baroness colored faintly at these four last words of her daughter, and hung her head.

That day the doctor scolded them both. "You have put your mother into a high fever," said he; "here's a pulse;

The commandant did not come to dinner as usual. The evening passed heavily; their hearts were full of

"We miss our merry, spirited companion," said the baroness with a grim look at Rose. Both young ladies

That night Rose came and slept with Josephine, and more than once she awoke with a start and seized

Accused of egoism! at first her whole nature rose in arms against the charge: but, after a while, coming as it

did from so revered a person, it forced her to serious selfexamination. The poor girl said to herself,

"Mamma is a shrewd woman. Am I after all deceiving myself? Would she be happy, and am I standing in the

way?" In the morning she begged her sister to walk with her in the park, so that they might be safe from

There, she said sadly, she could not understand her own sister. "Why are you so calm and cold, while am I in

tortures of anxiety? Have you made some resolve and not confided it to your Rose?"

"No, love," was the reply; "I am scarce capable of a resolution; I am a mere thing that drifts."

"What is the use? you heard him say he would not desist any the more, and I care too little about the matter to

"Ah, he is like you, all energy, at all hours; but I have so little where my heart is unconcerned: he seems, too,

"Heaven forbid! Rose, I love no one: I HAVE loved; but now my heart is dead and silent; only my

conscience says, 'You are the cause of all your mother's trouble; you are the cause that Beaurepaire was sold.

Now you can repair that mischief, and at the same time make a brave man happy, our benefactor happy.' It is

a great temptation: I hardly know why I said 'no' at all; surprise, perhapsor to please you, pretty one."

Rose groaned: "Are you then worth so little that you would throw yourself away on a man who does not love

"No; not happy; he is only stouthearted and good, and therefore content; and he is a character that it would

be easyin short, I feel my power here: I could make that man happy; he has nobody to write to even, when

"I shall lose all patience," cried Rose; "you are at your old trick, thinking of everybody but yourself: I let you

do it in trifles, but I love you too well to permit it when the happiness of your whole life is at stake. I must be

satisfied on one point, or else this marriage shall never take place: just answer me this; if Camille Dujardin

stood on one side, and Monsieur Raynal on the other, and both asked your hand, which would you take?"

"That will never be. Whose? Not his whom I despise. Esteem might ripen into love, but what must contempt

This reply gave Rose great satisfaction. To exhaust all awkward contingencies, she said, "One question more,

and I have done. Suppose Camille should turn outbe not quitewhat shall I say inexcusable?"

At this unlucky gush, Josephine turned pale, then red, then pale again, and cried eagerly, "Then all the world

should not part us. Why torture me with such a question? Ah! you have heard something." And in a moment

the lava of passion burst wildly through its thin sheet of ice. "I was blind. This is why you would save me

from this unnatural marriage. You are breaking the good news to me by degrees. There is no need.

Quickquicklet me have it. I have waited three years; I am sick of waiting. Why don't you speak? Why

don't you tell me? Then I will tell YOU. He is alivehe is well he is coming. It was not he those soldiers

saw; they were so far off. How could they tell? They saw a uniform but not a face. Perhaps he has been a

prisoner, and so could not write; could not come: but he is coming now. Why do you groan? why do you turn

pale? ah! I see; I have once more deceived myself. I was mad. He I love is still a traitor to France and me, and

I am wretched forever. Oh! that I were dead! oh! that I were dead! No; don't speak to me: never mind me; this

madness will pass as it has before, and leave me a dead thing among the living. Ah! sister, why did you wake

me from my dream? I was drifting so calmly, so peacefully, so dead, and painless, drifting over the dead sea

of the heart towards the living waters of gratitude and duty. I was going to make more than one worthy soul

happy; and seeing them happy, I should have been content and usefulwhat am I now?and comforted

other hearts, and died joyfuland young. For God is good; he releases the meek and patient from their

With this came a flood of tears; and she leaned against a bough with her forehead on her arm, bowed like a

"Accursed be that man's name, and MY tongue if ever I utter it again in your hearing!" cried Rose, weeping

bitterly. "You are wiser than I, and every way better. O my darling, dry your tears! Here he comes: look!

"Rose," cried Josephine, hastily, "I leave all to you. Receive Monsieur Raynal, and decline his offer if you

think proper. It is you who love me best. My mother would give me up for a house; for an estate, poor dear."

"Oh, no; that poor man is intolerable to me NOW. Let me avoid his sight, and think of his virtues."

Rose was left alone, mistress of her sister's fate. She put her head into her hands and filled with anxiety and

Like a good many more of us, she had been positive so long as the decision did not rest with her. But with

power comes responsibility, with responsibility comes doubt. Easy to be an advocate in re incerta; hard to be

the judge. And she had but a few seconds to think in; for Raynal was at hand. The last thing in her mind

before he joined her was the terrible power of that base Camille over her sister. She despaired of curing

Josephine, but a husband might. There's such divinity doth hedge a husband in innocent girls' minds.

"Well, little lady," began Raynal, "and how are you, and how is my motherinlaw that is to beor is not to

be, as your sister pleases; and how is SHE? have I frightened her away? There were two petticoats, and now

"I have not quite decided that you shall not have her," faltered poor Rose. She murmured on, "I dare say you

think me very unkind, very selfish; but put yourself in my place. I love my sister as no man can ever love her,

I know: my heart has been one flesh and one soul with hers all my life. A stranger comes and takes her away

from me as if she was I don't know what; his portmanteau; takes her to Egypt, oh! oh! oh!"

"What, do you think I am such a brute as to take that delicate creature about fighting with me? why, the hot

sand would choke her, to begin. No. You don't take my manoeuvre. I have no family; I try for a wife that will

throw me in a mother and sister. You will live all together the same as before, of course; only you must let

me make one of you when I am at home. And how often will that be? Besides, I am as likely to be knocked

on the head in Egypt as not; you are worrying yourself for nothing, little lady."

He uttered the last topic of consolation in a broad, hearty, hilarious tone, like a trombone impregnated with

"Heaven forbid!" cried Rose: "and I will, for even I shall pray for you now. What you will leave her at home?

forgive me for not seeing all your worth: of course I knew you were an angel, but I had no idea you were a

duck. You are just the man for my sister. She likes to obey: you are all for commanding. So you see. Then

she never thinks of herself; any other man but you would impose on her goodnature; but you are too

generous to do that. So you see. Then she esteems you so highly. And one whom I esteem (between you and

"Why should I say 'no?' you will make one another happy some day: you are both so good. Any other man

but you would tear her from me; but you are too just, too kind. Heaven will reward you. No! I will. I will give

you Josephine: ah, my dear brotherinlaw, it is the most precious thing I have to give in the world."

"Thank you, then. So that is settled. Hum! no, it is not quite; I forgot; I have something for you to read; an

The letter ran to this tune: a friend who had observed the commandant's frequent visits at Beaurepaire wrote

to warn him against traps. Both the young ladies of Beaurepaire were doubtless at the new proprietor's service

to pick and choose from. But for all that each of them had a lover, and though these lovers had their orders to

keep out of the way till monsieur should be hooked, he might be sure that if he married either, the man of her

In short, it was one of those poisoned arrows a coarse vindictive coward can shoot.

It was the first anonymous letter Rose had ever seen. It almost drove her mad on the spot. Raynal was sorry

"Why am I not a man?why don't I wear a sword? I would pass it through this caitiff's heart. The cowardly

slave!the fiend! for who but a fiend could slander an angel like my Josephine? Hooked? Oh! she will never

"Then don't let her see it: and why take it to heart like that? I don't trust to the word of a man who owns that

his story is a thing he dares not sign his name to; at all events, I shall not put his word against yours. But it is

best to understand one another in time. I am a plain man, but not a soft one. I should not be an easygoing

husband like some I see about: I'd have no wasps round my honey; if my wife took a lover I would not lecture

THE WOMANwhat is the use?I'd kill THE MAN then and there, indoors or out, as I would kill a

snake. If she took another, I'd send him after the first, and so on till one killed me."

"Yes; but for my own sake I don't choose to marry a woman that loves any other man. So tell me the plain

Rose turned chill in her inside. "I have no lover," she stammered. "I have a young fool that comes and teases

me: but it is no secret. He is away, but why? he is on a sickbed, poor little fellow!"

"I defy her. No, sir; I have not seen her speak three words to any young man except Monsieur Riviere this

Then Rose saw she could afford a little more candor. "Understand me; I can't speak of what happened when I

was a child. But if ever she had a girlish attachment, he has not followed it up, or surely I should have seen

"Of course. Oh! as for flirtations, let them pass: a lovely girl does not grow up without one or two whispering

some nonsense into her ear. Why, I myself should have flirted no doubt; but I never had the time. Bonaparte

gives you time to eat and drink, but not to sleep or flirt, and that reminds me I have fifty miles to ride, so

Left alone, Rose had some misgivings. She had equivocated with one whose upright, candid nature ought to

have protected him: but an enemy had accused Josephine; and it came so natural to shield her. "Did he really

think I would expose my own sister?" said she to herself, angrily. Was not this anger secret selfdiscontent?

Josephine smiled feebly. "It is easy to say 'say no;' but it is not so easy to say 'no,' especially when you feel

you ought to say 'yes,' and have no wish either way except to give pleasure to others."

"But I am not such skim milk as all that," replied Rose: "I have always a strong wish where you are

concerned, and your happiness. I hesitated whilst I was in doubt, but I doubt no longer: I have had a long talk

with him. He has shown me his whole heart: he is the best, the noblest of creatures: he has no littleness or

meanness. And then he is a thorough man; I know that by his being the very opposite of a woman in his

ways. Now you are a thorough woman, and so you will suit one another to a T. I have decided: so no more

doubts, love; no more tears; no more disputes. We are all of one mind, and I do think I have secured your

happiness. It will not come in a day, perhaps, but it will come. So then in one little fortnight you marry

"Oh, the comfort of that! you relieve me of a weight; you give me peace. I shall have duties; I shall do some

Josephine looked at her for a moment in silence, then said eagerly, "Bless you, dear Rose; you have saved

your sister;" then, after a moment, in a very different voice, "O Camille! Camille! why have you deserted

And with this she fell to sobbing terribly. Rose wept on her neck, but said nothing. She too was a woman, and

felt that this was the last despairing cry of love giving up a hopeless struggle.

They sat twined together in silence till Jacintha came to tell them it was close upon dinnertime; so then they

hastened to dry their tears and wash their red eyes, for fear their mother should see what they had been at, and

"Well, mademoiselle, these two consent; but what do you say? for after all, it is you I am courting, and not

"Sir," replied Josephine timidly, "I will be as frank, as straightforward as you are. I thank you for the honor

The wedding was fixed for that day fortnight. The next morning wardrobes were ransacked. The silk, muslin,

and lace of their prosperous days were looked out: grave discussions were held over each work of art. Rose

was active, busy, fussy. The baroness threw in the weight of her judgment and experience.

Josephine managed to smile whenever either Rose or the baroness looked at all fixedly at her.

At Bayonne, a garrison town on the south frontier of France, two sentinels walked lethargically, crossing and

recrossing before the governor's house. Suddenly their official drowsiness burst into energy; for a pale, grisly

man, in rusty, defaced, dirty, and torn regimentals, was walking into the courtyard as if it belonged to him.

The sentinels lowered their muskets, and crossed them with a clash before the gateway.

The scarecrow did not start back. He stopped and looked down with a smile at the steel barrier the soldiers

had improvised for him, then drew himself a little up, carried his hand carelessly to his cap, which was nearly

If you or I, dressed like a beggar who years ago had stolen regimentals and worn them down to civil

garments, had addressed these soldiers with these very same words, the bayonets would have kissed closer, or

perhaps the points been turned against our sacred and rusty person: but there is a freemasonry of the sword.

The light, imperious hand that touched that battered cap, and the quiet clear tone of command told. The

sentinels slowly recovered their pieces, but still looked uneasy and doubtful in their minds. The battered one

saw this, and gave a sort of lofty smile; he turned up his cuffs and showed his wrists, and drew himself still

The sentinels shouldered their pieces sharp, then dropped them simultaneously with a clatter and ring upon

The rusty figure rang the governor's bell. A servant came and eyed him with horror and contempt. He gave

his name, and begged to see the governor. The servant left him in the hall, and went upstairs to tell his

master. At the name the governor reflected, then frowned, then bade his servant reach him down a certain

"Load my pistols, put them on the table, show him in, and then order a guard to the door."

The governor was a stern veteran with a powerful brow, a shaggy eyebrow, and a piercing eye. He never rose,

but leaned his chin on his hand, and his elbow on a table that stood between them, and eyed his visitor very

fixedly and strangely. "We did not expect to see you on this side the Pyrenees," said he gravely.

"And suppose, instead of that, I turn out a corporal's guard, and bid them shoot you in the courtyard?"

"It would be the drollest thing you ever did, all things considered," said the other coolly, but bitterly.

The governor looked for the book he had lately consulted, found the page, handed it to the rusty officer, and

watched him keenly: the blood rushed all over his face, and his lip trembled; but his eye dwelt stern yet

"I have read your book, now read mine." He drew off his coat and showed his wrists and arms, blue and

"All the better for you: Spanish fetters, general." He showed a white scar on his shoulder. "Can you read that?

This is what I cut out of it," and he handed the governor a little round stone as big and almost as regular as a

"You are right, sir: Spanish knife. Can you read this?" and opening his bosom he showed a raw wound on his

The wounded man put his rusty coat on again, and stood erect, and haughty, and silent.

The general eyed him, and saw his great spirit shining through this man. The more he looked the less could

the scarecrow veil the hero from his practised eye. He said there must be some mistake, or else he was in his

dotage; after a moment's hesitation, he added, "Be seated, if you please, and tell me what you have been

"Cold, hunger, darkness, wounds, solitude, sickness, despair, prison, all that man can suffer."

"I should have died a dozen deaths but for one thing; I had promised her to live."

There was a pause. Then the old soldier said gravely, but more kindly, to the young one, "Tell me the facts,

An hour had scarce elapsed since the rusty figure was stopped by the sentinels at the gate, when two glittering

officers passed out under the same archway, followed by a servant carrying a furred cloak. The sentinels

presented arms. The elder of these officers was the governor: the younger was the late scarecrow, in a

brandnew uniform belonging to the governor's son. He shone out now in his true light; the beau ideal of a

patrician soldier; one would have said he had been born with a sword by his side and drilled by nature, so

straight and smart, yet easy he was in every movement. He was like a falcon, eye and all, only, as it were,

down at the bottom of the hawk's eye lay a dove's eye. That compound and varying eye seemed to say, I can

The old man was trying to persuade him to stay at Bayonne, until his wound should be cured.

"An hour in Paris! Well, at least call at the War Office and present this letter."

That same afternoon, wrapped in the governor's furred cloak, the young officer lay at his full length in the

coupe of the diligence, the whole of which the governor had peremptorily demanded for him, and rolled day

He reached it worn with fatigue and fevered by his wound, but his spirit as indomitable as ever. He went to

the War Office with the governor's letter. It seemed to create some little sensation; one functionary came and

said a polite word to him, then another. At last to his infinite surprise the minister himself sent down word he

wished to see him; the minister put several questions to him, and seemed interested in him and touched by his

"Pardon me, captain, but is this prudent? is it just to yourself and your friends?"

"I grudge so great, so sacred a joy to a letter. No! after all I have suffered I claim to be the one to tell her I

As the young officer was walking his horse by the roadside about a league and a half from Paris, he heard a

clatter behind him, and up galloped an aidedecamp and drew up alongside, bringing his horse nearly on his

He handed him a large packet sealed with the arms of France. The other tore it open; and there was his brevet

as colonel. His cheek flushed and his eye glittered with joy. The aidedecamp next gave him a parcel:

"Your epaulets, colonel! We hear you are going into the wilds where epaulets don't grow. You are to join the

"Your address, then, colonel, that we may know where to put our finger on a tried soldier when we want

"You never heard of Beaurepaire? it is in Brittany, fortyfive leagues from Paris, fortythree leagues and a

The new colonel read the precious document across his horse's mane, and then he was going to put one of the

"No; she should make him a colonel with her own dear hand. He put them in his pocket. He would not even

look at them till she had seen them. Oh, how happy he was not only to come back to her alive, but to come

His wound smarted, his limbs ached, but no pain past or present could lay hold of his mind. In his great joy

he remembered past suffering and felt present painyet smiled. Only every now and then he pined for wings

He was walking his horse quietly, drooping a little over his saddle, when another officer well mounted came

after him and passed him at a hand gallop with one hasty glance at his uniform, and went tearing on like one

He cudgelled his memory, and at last he remembered it was the face of an old comrade. At least it strongly

reminded him of one Jean Raynal who had saved his life in the Arno, when they were lieutenants together.

"Ah!" thought Camille; "I suppose I am more changed than he is; for he certainly did not recognize me at all.

Now I wonder what that fellow has been doing all this time. What a hurry he was in! a moment more and I

He touched his horse with the spur, and cantered gently on, for trotting shook him more than he could bear.

Even when he cantered he had to press his hand against his bosom, and often with the motion a bitterer pang

than usual came and forced the water from his eyes; and then he smiled. His great love and his high courage

made this reply to the body's anguish. And still his eyes looked straight forward as at some object in the

distant horizon, while he came gently on, his hand pressed to his bosom, his head drooping now and then,

Oh! if anybody had told him that in five days his Josephine was to be married; and that the bronzed comrade,

At Beaurepaire they were making and altering weddingdresses. Rose was excited, and even Josephine took

a calm interest. Dress never goes for nothing with her sex. The chairs and tables were covered, and the floor

was littered. The baroness was presiding over the rites of vanity, and telling them what she wore at her

wedding, under Louis XV., with strict accuracy, and what we men should consider a wonderful effort of

memory, when the Commandant Raynal came in like a cannonball, without any warning, and stood among

them in a stiff, military attitude. Exclamations from all the party, and then a kind greeting, especially from the

"And I have missed you once or twice, motherinlaw, I can tell you. Well, I have got bad news; but you

Loud ejaculations from the baroness and Rose. Josephine put down her work quietly.

The baroness sighed deeply, and the tears came into her eyes. "Oh, you must not be downhearted, old lady,"

shouted Raynal. "Why, I am as likely to come back from Egypt as not. It is an even chance, to say the least."

This piece of consolation completed the baroness's unhappiness. She really had conceived a great affection

"Take away all that finery, girls," said she bitterly; "we shall not want it for years. I shall not be alive when he

comes home from Egypt. I never had a sononly daughtersthe best any woman ever had; but a mother is

"Hate my general?" groaned Raynal, looking down with a sort of superstitious awe and wonder at the lovely

"What do I care for his soldiership? He has put off our wedding. For how many years did you say?"

In answer to the astonished looks this excited, he explained that the wedding was to have been in a week, but

"Tomorrow. Why, what do you suppose I left Paris for yesterday? left my duties even."

"What, monsieur?" asked Josephine, timidly, "did you ride all that way, and leave your duties MERELY TO

"You are worth a great deal more trouble than that," said Raynal simply. "Besides, I had passed my word, and

"So do I," said Josephine, a little proudly. "I will not go from it now, if you insist; but I confess to you, that

such a proposal staggers me; so suddenno preliminariesno time to reflect; in short, there are so many

"Difficulties," shouted Raynal with merry disdain; "there are none, unless you sit down and make them; we

do more difficult things than this every day of our lives: we passed the bridge of Arcola in thirteen minutes;

Her only reply was a look at her mother, to which the baroness replied by a nod; then turning to Raynal,

"This empressement is very flattering; but I see no possibility: there is an etiquette we cannot altogether defy:

"There used to be all that, madam," laughed Raynal, putting her down goodhumoredly; "but it was in the

days when armies came out and touched their caps to one another, and went back into winter quarters. Then

the struggle was who could go slowest; now the fight is who can go fastest. Time and Bonaparte wait for

nobody; and ladies and other strong places are taken by storm, not undermined a foot a month as under Noah

He then drew a little plan of a wedding campaign. "The carriages will be here at 9 A.M.," said he; "they will

whisk us down to the mayor's house by a quarter to ten: Picard, the notary, meets us there with the marriage

contract, to save time; the contract signed, the mayor will do the marriage at quick step out of respect for

me half an hourquarter past ten; breakfast in the same house an hour and a quarter:we mustn't hurry a

wedding breakfastthen ten minutes or so for the old fogies to waste in making speeches about our

virtuesmy watch will come outmy charger will come roundI rise from the tableembrace my dear

old motherkiss my wife's handinto the saddlecanter to Parisroll to Toulonsail to Egypt. But I

shall leave a wife and a mother behind me: they will both send me a kind word now and then; and I will write

letters to you all from Egypt, and when I come home, my wife and I will make acquaintance, and we will all

be happy together: and if I am killed out there, don't you go and fret your poor little hearts about it; it is a

soldier's lot sooner or later. Besides, you will find I have taken care of you; nobody shall come and turn you

out of your quarters, even though Jean Raynal should be dead; I have got to meet Picard at Riviere's on that

"You need no help," cried the baroness, with enthusiasm, "not love him, we should all be monsters."

Raynal came to supper looking bright and cheerful. "No more work today. I have nothing to do but talk;

This evening Josephine de Beaurepaire, who had been silent and thoughtful, took a quiet opportunity, and

Josephine drew back at this brusque reply like a sensitive plant. But she returned to the attack.

"But is it not a wife's duty to be by her husband's side to look after his comfortto console him when others

"Well, when I am your husband, I shall bid you stay with your mother and sister while I go to Egypt."

He told her bluntly he thought none the worse of her for making the offer; but should not accept it.

Camille Dujardin slept that night at a roadside inn about twelve miles from Beaurepaire, and not more than

And the racers all unconscious of each other, yet spurred impartially by events that were now hurrying to a

But the ladies were not ready. Thus early in the campaign did they throw all into disorder. For so nicely had

Raynal timed the several events that this threw him all into confusion. He stamped backwards and forwards,

and twisted his mustaches, and swore. This enforced unpunctuality was a new torture to him. Jacintha told

them he was angry, and that made them nervous and flurried, and their fingers strayed wildly among hooks

and eyes, and all sorts of fastenings; they were not ready till halfpast nine. Conscious they deserved a

scolding, they sent Josephine down first to mollify. She dawned upon the honest soldier so radiant, so

dazzling in her snowy dress, with her coronet of pearls (an heirloom), and her bridal veil parted, and the flush

of conscious beauty on her cheek, that instead of scolding her, he actually blurted out, "Well! by St. Denis it

He recovered a quarter of an hour by making the driver gallop. Then occasional shrieks issued from the

carriage that held the baroness. That ancient lady feared annihilation: she had not come down from a

They drove into the town, drew up at the mayor's house, were received with great ceremony by that

When their carriages rattled into the street from the north side, Colonel Dujardin had already entered it from

the south, and was riding at a foot's pace along the principal street. The motion of his horse now shook him

past endurance. He dismounted at an inn a few doors from the mayor's house, and determined to do the rest of

the short journey on foot. The landlord bustled about him obsequiously. "You are faint, colonel; you have

"I have two; but, unluckily, they are both engaged for the day, and by people of distinction. Commandant

"Ah! I wish him joy," said Camille, heartily. He then asked the landlord to open the window, as he felt rather

faint. The landlord insisted on breakfast, and Camille sat down to an omelet and a bottle of red wine. Then he

lay awhile near the window, revived by the air, and watched the dear little street he had not seen for years. He

A pen was put into her white hand, and in another moment she had signed a marriage contract.

"Now to the church," cried the baroness, gayly. To get to the church, they must pass by the window Camille

"Oh! there's no time for that," said Raynal. And as the baroness looked horrified and amazed, Picard

explained: "The state marries its citizens now, with reason: since marriage is a civil contract."

"Marriage a civil contract!" repeated the baroness. "What, is it then no longer one of the holy sacraments?

What horrible impiety shall we come to next? Unhappy France! Such a contract would never be a marriage in

"Madame," said Picard, "the Church can bless it still; but it is only the mayor here that can DO it."

All this time Josephine was blushing scarlet, and looking this way and that, with a sort of instinctive desire to

"Haw! haw! haw!" roared Raynal; "here is a pretty mother. Wants her daughter to be unlawfully married in a

"And HE would turn you all out, and that does not suit me. Now there stands the only man who can make

mademoiselle my LAWFUL wife. So quick march, monsieur the mayor, for time and Bonaparte wait for no

"Stay a minute, young people," said the mayor. "We should soothe respectable prejudices, not crush them.

Madam, I am at least as old as you, and have seen many changes. I perfectly understand your feelings."

"Calm yourself, dear madam; the case is not so bad as you think. It is perfectly true that in republican France

the civil magistrate alone can bind French citizens in lawful wedlock. But this does not annihilate the

religious ceremony. You can ask the Church's blessing on my work; and be assured you are not the only one

who retains that natural prejudice. Out of every ten couples that I marry, four or five go to church afterwards

and perform the ancient ceremonies. And they do well. For there before the altar the priest tells them what it

is not my business to dilate uponthe grave moral and religious duties they have undertaken along with this

civil contract. The state binds, but the Church still blesses, and piously assents to that"

"Monsieur Picard, do you consider it polite to interrupt the chief magistrate of the place while he is

"I married her myself, as I will marry yours, if you will trust me with her. And after I have made them one,

"I beg your pardon," cried Raynal, "there are two things to prevent it: a couple that wait for no man: Time and

The mayor assented. He invited Josephine to stand before him. She trembled and wept a little: Rose clung to

"It is done effectively, madam," said the mayor, with a smile. "Permit me to tell you that his Holiness the

"Oh! indeed," said Raynal aloud and carelessly. "Come, Madame Raynal, to breakfast: follow us, the rest of

Now if the mayor had not snubbed Picard just before, he would have uttered those jocose but true words

aloud. There was no particular reason why he should not. And if he had,The threads of the web of life,

how subtle they are! The finest cotton of Manchester, the finer meshes of the spider, seem threeinch cables

by comparison with those moral gossamers which vulgar eyes cannot see at all, the "somethings, nothings,"

It was a cheerful breakfast, thanks to Raynal, who would be in high spirits, and would not allow a word of

regret from any one. Madame Raynal sat by his side, looking up at him every now and then with innocent

Two doors off sat the wounded colonel alone, recruiting the small remnant of his sore tried strength, that he

might struggle on to Beaurepaire, and lose in one moment years of separation, pain, prison, anguish,

The wedding breakfast was ended. The time was drawing near to part. There was a silence. It was broken by

Madame Raynal. She asked Raynal very timidly if he had reflected. "On what?" said he.

"Yet permit me to say that it is my duty to be by your side, my husband." And she colored at this word, being

the first time she had ever used it. Raynal was silent. She murmured on, "I would not be an encumbrance to

you, sir: I should not be useless. Gentlemen, I could add more to his comfort than he gives me credit for."

Josephine bowed her head. "At least give me something to do for you while you are away. Tell me what I can

"Do you? Then the moment I reach home after losing you I shall put it on, and it shall be my constant wear. I

see; you are right; gray becomes a wife whose husband is not dead, but is absent, and alas! in hourly danger."

"Now look at that!" cried Raynal to the company. "That is her all over: she can see six meanings where

another would see but one. I never thought of that, I swear. I like modest colors, that is all. My mother used to

"I am of her mind, sir. Is there nothing more difficult you will be so good as give me to do?"

"No; there is only one order more, and that will be easier still to such a woman as you. I commit to your care

the name of Raynal. It is not so high a name as yours, but it is as honest. I am proud of it: I am jealous of it. I

The baroness began to cry. "The young people may hope to see you again," said she; "but there are two

"Courage, mother!" cried the stout soldier. "No, no; you won't play me such a trick: once is enough for that

"Brother!" cried Rose, "do not go without kissing your little sister, who loves you and thanks you." He kissed

her. "Bravo, generous soul!" she cried, with her arms round his neck. "God protect you, and send you back

Raynal's mustache quivered. He kissed Josephine hastily on the brow, the baroness on both cheeks; shook the

men's hands warmly but hastily, and strode out without looking behind him. He was moved for once.

They all followed him to the door of the house. He was tightening his horse's girths. He flung himself with all

the resolution of his steel nature into the saddle, and, with one grand wave of his cocked hat to the tearful

The baroness took the doctor ashopping; she must buy Rose a gray silk. In doing this she saw many other

But the young ladies went up to Beaurepaire in the other carriage, for Josephine wished to avoid the gaze of

the town, and get home and be quiet. The driver went very fast. He had drunk the bride's health at the

mayor's, item the bridegroom's, the bridesmaid's, the mayor's, etc., and "a spur in the head is worth two in the

heel," says the proverb. The sisters leaned back on the soft cushions, and enjoyed the smooth and rapid

Then Rose took her sister gently to task for having offered to go to Egypt. She had forgotten her poor sister.

"No, love," replied Josephine, "did you not see I dared not look towards you? I love you better than all the

world; but this was my duty. I was his wife: I had no longer a feeble inclination and a feeble disinclination to

"Yes, Rose," continued Josephine thoughtfully, "duty is a great comfort: it is so tangible; it is something to

Rose assented, and they were silent a minute; and when she spoke again it was to own she loved a carriage.

"How fast we glide! Now lean back with me, and take my hand, and as we glide shut your eyes and think:

"Well, then," said Josephine, half closing her eyes, "in the first place I feel a great calm, a heavenly calm. My

fate is decided. No more suspense. My duties are clear. I have a husband I am proud of. There is no perfidy

with him, no deceit, no disingenuousness, no shade. He is a human sun. He will make me a better, truer

woman, and I him a happier man. Yes, is it not nice to think that great and strong as he is I can teach him a

happiness he knows not as yet?" And she smiled with the sense of her delicate power, but said no more; for

she was not the one to talk much about herself. But Rose pressed her. "Yes, go on, dear," she said, "I seem to

see your pretty little thoughts rising out of your heart like a bubbling fountain: go on."

Thus encouraged, Josephine thought on aloud, "And then, gratitude!" said she. "I have heard it said, or read it

somewhere, that gratitude is a burden: I cannot understand that sentiment; why, to me gratitude is a delight,

gratitude is a passion. It is the warmest of all the tender feelings I have for dear Monsieur Raynal. I feel it

glow here, in my bosom. I think I shall love him as I ought long before he comes back."

"Yes," murmured Josephine, her eyes still half closed. "His virtues will always be present to me. His little

faults of manner will not be in sight. Good Raynal! The image of those great qualities I revere so, perhaps

because I fail in them myself, will be before my mind; and ere he comes home I shall love him dearly. I'll tell

"Guess?" said Rose, contemptuously. "As if I did not see it was to put on your gray silk."

Josephine smiled assent, and said almost with fervor, "Good Raynal! I feel prouder of his honest name than

of our noble one. And I am so calm, dear, thanks to you, so tranquil; so pleased that my mother's mind is at

rest, so convinced all is for the best, so contented with my own lot; so happy."

A gentle tear stole from beneath her long lashes. Rose looked at her wistfully: then laid her cheek to hers.

Suddenly Josephine's hand tightened on Rose's, and she sat up in the carriage like a person awakened from a

"Oh! no! on footwalking very slowly. Coming this way, too. Coming this way!" and she became singularly

restless, and looked round in the carriage. It was one of those old chariots with no side windows, but a peep

hole at the back. This aperture, however, had a flap over it. Josephine undid the flap with nimble though

agitated fingers; and sawnothing. The road had taken a turn. "Oh," said Rose, carelessly, "for that matter

Rose gave her such a look, and for the first time this many a day spoke sternly to her, and asked her what on

earth she had to do with uniforms or officers except one, the noblest in the world, her husband.

A month ago that word was almost indifferent to Josephine, or rather she uttered it with a sort of mild

complacency. Now she started at it, and it struck chill upon her. She did not reply, however, and the carriage

"He seemed to be dragging himself along." This was the first word Josephine had spoken for some time. "Oh,

On reaching Beaurepaire she wanted to go upstairs at once and put on her gray gown. But the day was so

delightful that Rose begged her to stroll in the Pleasaunce for half an hour and watch for their mother's return.

She consented in an absent way, and presently began to walk very fast, unconscious of her companion. Rose

"There's a fretful tone; and how excited you look, and feel too. Well, I thought you were unnaturally calm

"See who? Oh, that tiresome officer. Why, how much more are we to hear about him? I don't believe there

At this moment a cocked hat came in sight, bobbing up and down above the palings that divided the park

Rose got a little cross at being practically confuted, and said coldly, "Come, let us go in; the only cocked hat

Josephine assented eagerly. But she had not taken two steps towards the house ere she altered her mind, and

said she felt faint, she wanted air; no, she should stay out a little longer. "Look, Rose," said she, in a strangely

excited way, "what a shame! They put all manner of rubbish into this dear old tree: I will have it all turned

out." And she looked with feigned interest into the tree: but her eyes seemed turned inward.

Rose gave a cry of surprise. "He is waving his hat to me! What on earth does that mean?"

"IT IS HE! I knew his figure at a glance." And she blushed and trembled with joy; she darted behind the tree

and peered round at him unseen: turning round a moment she found Rose at her back pale and stern. She

"Are you mad, Josephine? Into the house this moment; if it IS he, I will receive him and send him about his

But Josephine stood fascinated, and pale as ashes; for now the cocked hat stopped, and a pale face with eyes

whose eager fire shone even at that distance, rose above the palings. Josephine crouched behind Rose, and

"Say something hateful," said Rose, trembling in her turn, but only with anger. "The heartless selfish traitor!

He never notices you till you are married to the noblest of mankind; and then he comes here directly to ruin

your peace. No; I have altered my mind. He shall not see you, of course; but YOU shall hear HIM. I'll soon

make you know the wretch and loathe him as I do. There, now he has turned the corner; hide in the oak while

he is out of sight. Hide, quick, quick." Josephine obeyed mechanically; and presently, through that very

aperture whence her sister had smiled on her lover she hissed out, in a tone of which one would not have

thought her capable, "Be wise, be shrewd; find out who is the woman that has seduced him from me, and has

brought two wretches to this. I tell you it is some wicked woman's doing. He loved me once."

"Not so loud!one word: you are a wife. Swear to me you will not let him see you, come what may."

"Oh! never! never!" cried Josephine with terror. "I would rather die. When you have heard what he has to

say, then tell him I am dead. No, tell him I adore my husband, and went to Egypt this day with him. Ah!

Rose stood still, and nerved herself in silence. Josephine panted in her hidingplace.

Rose's only thought now was to expose the traitor to her sister, and restore her peace. She pretended not to

see Camille till he was near her. He came eagerly towards her, his pale face flushing with great joy, and his

"Josephine! It is not Josephine, after all," said he. "Why, this must be Rose, little Rose, grown up to a fine

"What do I come here for? is that the way to speak to me? but I am too happy to mind. Dear Beaurepaire! do

"No. It is you who have insulted your sister as well as me. She was not made to be deserted for meaner

women. Come, mademoiselle, affront me, and me alone, and you shall find me more patient. Oh! who would

"Well, sir, the information you did not supply others did. We know that you were seen in a Spanish village

"He told you true," said Camille, sullenly. "The bullet grazed my hand; see, here is the mark. Look!" She did

look, and gave a little scream; but recovering herself, said she wished it had gone through his heart. "Why

"I doubt that," said Camille. "Did he tell you that under the table I was chained tight down to the chair I sat

in? Did he tell you that my hand was fastened to a drinkinghorn, and my elbow to the table, and two fellows

sitting opposite me with pistols quietly covering me, ready to draw the trigger if I should utter a cry? Did he

tell you that I would have uttered that cry and died at that table but for one thing, I had promised her to live?"

"Not he; he told me nothing so incredible. Besides, what became of you all these years? You are a double

Camille literally gasped for breath. "You are a most cruel young lady to insult me so," said he, and scalding

He fought manfully against this weakness, with which his wound and his fatigue had something to do, as well

as Rose's bitter words; and after a gallant struggle he returned her her haughty stare, and addressed her thus:

"Mademoiselle, I feel myself blush, but it is for you I blush, not for myself. This is what BECAME of me. I

went out alone to explore; I fell into an ambuscade; I shot one of the enemy, and pinked another, but my arm

being broken by a bullet, and my horse killed under me, the rascals got me. They took me about, tried to

make a decoy of me as I have told you, and ended by throwing me into a dungeon. They loaded me with

chains, too, though the walls were ten feet thick, and the door iron, and bolted and doublebolted outside.

And there for months and years, in spite of wounds, hunger, thirst, and all the tortures those cowards made

me suffer, I lived, because, Rose, I had promised some one at that gate there (and he turned suddenly and

pointed to it) that I would come back alive. At last, one night, my jailer came to my cell drunk. I seized him

by the throat and throttled him till he was insensible; his keys unlocked my fetters, and locked him in the cell,

and I got safely outside. But there a sentinel saw me, and fired at me. He missed me but ran after me, and

caught me. You see I was stiff, confined so long. He gave me a thrust of his bayonet; I flung my heavy keys

fiercely in his face; he staggered; I wrested his piece from him, and disabled him."

"I crossed the frontier in the night, and got to Bayonne; and thence, day and night, to Paris. There I met a

reward for all my anguish. They gave me the epaulets of a colonel. See, here they are. France does not give

these to traitors, young lady." He held them out to her in both hands. She eyed them half stupidly; all her

thoughts were on the oaktree hard by. She began to shudder. Camille was telling the truth. She felt that; she

saw it; and Josephine was hearing it. "Ay! look at them, you naughty girl," said Camille, trying to be jocose

over it all with his poor trembling lip. He went on to say that from the moment he had left dark Spain, and

entered fair France everybody was so kind, so sympathizing. "They felt for the poor worn soldier coming

back to his love. All but you, Rose. You told me I was a traitor to her and to France."

"I was told so," said Rose, faintly. She was almost at her wits' end what to say or do.

"Well, are you sorry or not sorry for saying such a cruel thing to a poor fellow?"

"Sorry, very sorry," whispered Rose. She could not persist in injustice, yet she did not want Josephine to hear.

"Then say no more about it; there's my hand. You are not a soldier, and did not know what you were talking

"I am very sorry I spoke so harshly to you. But you understand. How you look; how you pant."

"There, I will show you I forgive you. These epaulets, dear, I have never put them on. I said, no; Josephine

shall put them on for me. I will take honor as well as happiness from her dear hand. But you are her sister,

and what are epaulets compared with what she will give me? You shall put them on, dear. Come, then you

Rose, faint at heart, consented in silence, and fastened on the epaulets. "Yes, Camille!" she cried, with sudden

"No one thinks of it more. But today how can I think of it, how can I give her a rival? Today I am all love.

Rose, no man ever loved a human creature as I love Josephine. Your mother is well, dear? All are well at

Beaurepaire? Oh, where is she all this time? in the house?" He was moving quickly towards the house; but

Rose instinctively put out her hand to stop him. He recoiled a little and winced.

"Nothing, dear girl; you put your hand on my wound, that is all. What is that noise in the tree? Anybody

"I'll see," said Rose, with all a woman's wit, and whipped hastily round to hinder Camille from going. She

found Josephine white as death, apparently fainting, and clutching at the tree convulsively with her nails.

Such was the intensity of the situation that she left her beloved sister in that piteous state, and even hoped she

would faint dead away, and so hear no more. She came back white, and told Camille it was only a bird got

into the tree. "And to think you should be wounded," said she, to divert his attention from the tree.

"Yes," said he, "and it is rather inflamed, and has worried me all the way. You need not go telling Josephine,

though. They wanted me to stop and lay up at Bayonne. How could I? And again at Paris. How could I? They

said, 'You will die.''Not before I get to Beaurepaire,' said I. I could bear the motion of a horse no longer, so

at the nearest town I asked for a carriage. Would you believe it? both his carriages were OUT AT A

WEDDING. I could not wait till they came back. I had waited an eternity. I came on foot. I dragged my self

along; the body was weak, but the heart was strong. A little way from here my wound seemed inclined to

open. I pressed it together tight with my hand; you see I could not afford to lose any more blood, and so

struggled on. 'Die?' said I, 'not before Beaurepaire.' And, O Rose! now I could be content to dieat her feet;

for I am happy. Oh! I am happy beyond words to utter. What I have gone through! But I kept my word, and

this is Beaurepaire. Hurrah!" and his pale cheek flushed, and his eye gleamed, and he waved his hat feebly

"And must I stab you worse than all your enemies have stabbed you?" sighed Rose, and tears of womanly

Camille's mind began to misgive him. What was become of Josephine? she did not appear. He faltered out,

"Your mother is well; all are well I hope. Oh, where is she?" and receiving no reply, began to tremble visibly

Rose, with a sister fainting close by, and this poor lover trembling before her, lost all selfcommand, and

began to wring her hands and cry wildly. "Camille," she almost screamed, "there is but one thing for you to

When he said that, with an unnatural and monotonous calm such as precedes deliberate suicide, it flashed in

"She would have come to me ere this if she was alive," said he. "You are all in white: they mourn in white for

angels like her, that go to heaven, virgins. Oh! I was blind. You might have told me at once; you see I can

bear it. What does it matter to one who loves as I love? It is only to give her one more proof I lived only for

her. I would have died a hundred times but for my promise to her. Yes, I am coming, love; I am coming."

He fell on his knees and smiled, and whispered, "I am coming, Josephine, I am coming."

Camille rose to his feet, awestruck. "That was her voice, behind this tree," he whispered.

But at that moment a rustle and a rush was heard of some one darting out of the tree.

Camille darted furiously round it in the same direction. Rose tried to stop him, but was too late. The next

Josephine wrestled long and terribly with nature in that old oak tree. But who can so struggle forever?

Anguish, remorse, horror, despair, and love wrenched her to and fro; and O mysterious human heart! gleams

of a mad fitful joy shot through her, coming quick as lightning, going as quickly, and leaving the despair

darker. And then the fierce struggle of the soul to make itself heard! More than once she had to close her

mouth with her hand: more than once she seized her throat not to cry out. But as the struggle endured, she got

weaker and weaker, and nature mightier and mightier. And when the wounded hero fell on his knees so close

to her; when he who had resisted death so bravely for her, prepared to give up life calmly for her, her bosom

rose beyond all control: it seemed to fill to choking, then to split wide open and give the struggling soul

passage in one gasping sob and heartstricken cry. Could she have pent this in she must have died.

It betrayed her. She felt it had: so then came the woman's instinctflight: the coward's impulseflight: the

chaste wife's inspirationflight. She rushed from her hidingplace and made wildly for the house.

But, unluckily, Camille was at that moment darting round the tree: she ran right into the danger she meant to

flee. He caught her in his arms. He held her irresistibly. "I have got her; I have got her," he shouted in wild

triumph. "No! I will not let you go. None but God shall ever take you from me, and he has spared you to me.

You are not dead: you have kept faith as I have: you have lived. See! look at me. I am alive, I am well, I am

happy. I told Rose that I suffered. If I had suffered I should remember it. It is all gone at sight of you, my

His arm was firm round her waist. His glowing eyes poured love upon her. She felt his beating heart.

All that passed in her then, what mortal can say? She seemed two women: that part of her which could not get

away from his strong arm lost all strength to resist, it yielded and thrilled under his embrace, her bosom

heaving madly: all that was free writhed away from him; her face was averted with a glare of terror, and both

"You turn away your head. Rose, she turns away. Speak for me. Scold her; for I don't know how to scold her.

"Camille," cried Rosethe tears streaming down her cheeks"my poor Camille! leave Beaurepaire. Oh,

At that Josephine, like some feeble but nimble wild creature on whom a grasp has relaxed, writhed away

from him and got free: "Farewell! Farewell!" she cried, in despair's own voice, and made swiftly for the

Now ere she had gone many steps who should meet her right in front but Jacintha.

"Madame Raynal, the baroness's carriage is just in sight. I thought you'd like to know." Then she bawled

proudly to Rose, "I was the first to call her madame;" and off went Jacintha convinced she had done

Josephine had no longer the power or the wish to fly. "Better so," she thought, and she stood cowering.

The great passions that had spoken so loud were struck dumb, and a deep silence fell upon the place. Madame

Raynal's quivering eye turned slowly and askant towards Camille, but stopped in terror ere it could see him.

For she knew by this fearful stillness that the truth was creeping on Camille. And so did Rose.

Rose came between him and Josephine, and sobbed out, "Camille, it was our doing. We drove her to it. O sir,

He waved her out of his way as if she had been some idle feather, and almost staggered up to Josephine.

The poor creature, true to her nature, was thinking more of him than herself. Even in her despair it flashed

across her, "If he knew all, he too would be wretched for life. If I let him think ill of me he may be happy one

"No, no!" cried Rose; "don't believe HER: she never suspected you. We have brought her to this, we alone."

"Forget you? never, never! there is but one thing I can do to show you how I loved you: I will forgive you,

"Let none speak but I," said Camille; "none but I have the right to speak. Poor weak angel that loved yet

The quiet, despairing tones died away, and with them life seemed to end to her, and hope to go out. He turned

his back quickly on her. He cried hoarsely, "To the army! Back to the army, and a soldier's grave!" Then with

a prodigious effort he drew himself haughtily up in marching attitude. He took three strides, erect and fiery

At the next something seemed to snap asunder in the great heart, and the worn body that heart had held up so

The baroness and Aubertin were just getting out of their carriage, when suddenly they heard shrieks of terror

in the Pleasaunce. They came with quaking hearts as fast as their old limbs would carry them. They found

Rose was just tearing open his collar and jacket. Dard and Jacintha had run from the kitchen at the screams.

The doctor was the first to come up. "Who! what is this? I seem to know his face." Then shaking his head,

Whilst the old man was going stiffly down on one knee, Jacintha uttered a cry of terror. "See, see! his shirt!

that red streak! Ah, ah! it is getting bigger and bigger:" and she turned faint in a moment, and would have

The doctor looked. "All the better," said he firmly. "I thought he was dead. His blood flows; then I will save

him. Don't clutch me so, Josephine; don't cling to me like that. Now is the time to show your breed: not turn

sick at the sight of a little blood, like that foolish creature, but help me save him."

"What," said the baroness, "a wounded soldier who has fought for France! leave him to lie and die outside my

Rose cast a hasty look at Josephine. Josephine's eyes were bent on the ground, and her hands clenched and

"Now, Jacintha, you be off," said the doctor. "I can't have cowards about him to make the others as bad. Go

"Why, I know him," said the baroness suddenly; "it is an old acquaintance, young Dujardin: you remember,

Josephine. I used to suspect him of a fancy for you, poor fellow! Why, he must have come here to see us,

"No matter who it is; it is a man. Now, girls, have you courage, have you humanity? Then come one on each

side of him and take hands beneath his back, while I lift his head and Dard his legs."

"And handle him gently whatever you do," said Dard. "I know what it is to be wounded."

These four carried the lifeless burden very slowly and gently across the Pleasaunce to the house, then with

All the while the sisters' hands griped one another tight beneath the lifeless burden, and spoke to one another.

And Josephine's arm upheld tenderly but not weakly the hero she had struck down. She avoided Rose's eye,

her mother's, and even the doctor's: one gasping sob escaped her as she walked with head half averted, and

The doctor selected the tapestried chamber for him as being most airy. Then he ordered the women out, and

Josephine sat down on the stairs in gloomy silence, her eyes on the ground, like one waiting for her

Rose, sick at heart, sat silent too at some distance. At last she said faintly, "Have we done well?"

At this instant Dard came running down. "Good news, mesdemoiselles, good news! the wound runs all along;

it is not deep, like mine was. He has opened his eyes and shut them again. The dear good doctor stopped the

blood in a twinkle. The doctor says he'll be bound to save him. I must run and tell Jacintha. She is taking on

Josephine, who had risen eagerly from her despairing posture, clasped her hands together, then lifted up her

When she had wept a long while, she said to Rose, "Come, sister, help your poor Josephine."

"My duty," faltered Josephine. "An hour ago it seemed so sweet," and she fell to weeping patiently again.

They went to Josephine's room. She crept slowly to a wardrobe, and took out a gray silk dress.

"Help me, Rose. It is for myself as well; to remind me every moment I am Madame Raynal."

They put the gray gown on her, both weeping patiently. It will be known at the last day, all that honest

Camille soon recovered his senses and a portion of his strength: then the irritation of his wound brought on

fever. This in turn retired before the doctor's remedies and a sound constitution, but it left behind it a great

weakness and general prostration. And in this state the fate of the body depends greatly on the mind.

The baroness and the doctor went constantly to see him, and soothe him: he smiled and thanked them, but his

When he got well enough to leave his bed the largest couch was sent up to him from the saloon; a kind hand

lined the baron's silk dressinggown for him warm and soft and nice; and he would sit or lie on his couch, or

take two turns in the room leaning upon Rose's shoulder, and glad of the support; and he looked piteously in

her eyes when she came and when she went. Rose looked down; she could do nothing, she could say nothing.

With his strength, Camille lost a portion of his pride: he pined for a sight of her he no longer respected; pined

At last one day he spoke out. "How kind you are to me, Rose! how kind you all arebut one."

"She hates me: it is true, then, that we hate those whom we have wounded. Cruel, cruel Josephine! Oh, heart

"Ah! I forgot. But have I no claim on her? Nearly four years she has been my betrothed. What have I done?

Was I ever false to her? I could forgive her for what she has done to me, but she cannot forgive me. Does she

"Very well," said Camille, with a malicious smile. "I am in her way. I see what she wants; she shall have it."

But the next day early, Josephine took Rose to a door outside the house, a door that had long been disused.

Nettles grew before it. She produced a key and with great difficulty opened this door. It led to the tapestried

Rose scarcely needed to be told that she was to watch Camille, and report to her. In truth, it was a mysterious,

vague protection against a danger equally mysterious. Yet it made Josephine easier. But so unflinching was

her prudence that she never once could be prevailed on to mount those stairs, and peep at Camille herself. "I

must starve my heart, not feed it," said she. And she grew paler and more holloweyed day by day.

Yet this was the same woman who showed such feebleness and irresolution when Raynal pressed her to

marry him. But then dwarfs feebly drew her this way and that. Now giants fought for her. Between a feeble

inclination and a feeble disinclination her dead heart had drifted to and fro. Now honor, duty,

gratitude,which last with her was a passion,dragged her one way: love, pity, and remorse another.

Not one of these giants would relax his grasp, and nothing yielded except her vital powers. Yes; her temper,

Was it a wonder? There lay the man she loved pining for her; cursing her for her cruelty, and alternately

praying Heaven to forgive him and to bless her: sighing, at intervals, all the day long, so loud, so deep, so

piteously, as if his heart broke with each sigh; and sometimes, for he little knew, poor soul, that any human

eye was upon him, casting aside his manhood in his despair, and flinging himself on the very floor, and

And here was she pining in secret for him who pined for her? "I am not a woman at all," said she, who was

all woman. "I am crueller to him than a tiger or any savage creature is to the victim she tears. I must cure him

of his love for me; and then die; for what shall I have to live for? He weeps, he sighs, he cries for Josephine."

Her enforced cruelty was more contrary to this woman's nature than black is to white, or heat to cold, and the

heart rebelled furiously at times. As when a rock tries to stem a current, the water fights its way on more sides

than one, so insulted nature dealt with Josephine. Not only did her body pine, but her nerves were

exasperated. Sudden twitches came over her, that almost made her scream. Her permanent state was utter

despondency, but across it came fitful flashes of irritation; and then she was scarce mistress of herself.

Wherefore you, who find some holy woman cross and bitter, stop a moment before you sum her up vixen and

her religion naught: inquire the history of her heart: perhaps beneath the smooth cold surface of duties well

discharged, her life has been, or even is, a battle against some selfindulgence the insignificant saint's very

blood cries out for: and so the poor thing is cross, not because she is bad, but because she is better than the

Now though Josephine was more on her guard with the baroness than with Rose, or the doctor, or Jacintha,

But the baroness had not the clew we have; and what a difference that makes! How small an understanding,

put by accident or instruction on the right track, shall run the game down! How great a sagacity shall wander

"Doctor," said the baroness one day, "you are so taken up with your patient you neglect the rest of us. Do

look at Josephine! She is ill, or going to be ill. She is so pale, and so fretful, so peevish, which is not in her

"The other day I heard her snap Rose: and this morning she half snarled at me, just because I pressed her to

go and console our patient. Hush! here she is. My child, I am accusing you to the doctor. I tell him you

"One of these days," said the baroness, shocked. "You used not to be so hardhearted. A soldier, an old

comrade of your husband's, wounded and sick, and you alone never go to him, to console him with a word of

Josephine looked at her mother with a sort of incredulous stare. Then, after a struggle, she replied with a tone

and manner so spiteful and icy that it would have deceived even us who know her had we heard it. "He has

plenty of nurses without me." She added, almost violently, "My husband, if he were wounded, would not

With this she rose and went out, leaving them aghast. She sat down in the passage on a windowseat, and

laughed hysterically. Rose heard her and ran to her. Josephine told her what her mother had said to her. Rose

soothed her. "Never mind, you have your sister who understands you: don't you go back till they have got

Rose out of curiosity went in, and found a discussion going on. The doctor was fathoming Josephine, for the

"It is a female jealousy, and of a mighty innocent kind. We are so taken up with this poor fellow, she thinks

"Surely, doctor, our Josephine would not be so unreasonable, so unjust," suggested her mother.

"She belongs to a sex, be it said without offending you, madame, among whose numberless virtues justice

The baroness shook her head. "That is not it. It is a piece of prudery. This young gentleman was a sort of

admirer of hers, though she did not admire him much, as far as I remember. But it was four years ago; and

"Well, but, mamma, a trifling excess of delicacy is surely excusable." This from Rose.

"No, no; it is not delicacy; it is prudery. And when people are sick and suffering, an honest woman should

take up her charity and lay down her prudery, or her coquetry: two things that I suspect are the same thing in

Here Jacintha came in. "Mademoiselle, here is the colonel's broth; Madame Raynal has flavored it for him,

She had deceived him about Josephine's attachment, and felt all the more desirous to guard him against any

ill consequences of it. Then he had been so generous to her: he had left her her sister, who would have gone

This watching of Camille saddened even her. When she was with him his pride bore him up: but when he was

alone as he thought, his anguish and despair were terrible, and broke out in so many ways that often Rose

She dared not tell Josephine the half of what she saw: what she did tell her agitated her so terribly: and often

Rose had it on the tip of her tongue to say, "Do pray go and see if you can say nothing that will do him

good;" but she fought the impulse down. This battle of feeling, though less severe than her sister's, was

constant; it destroyed her gayety. She, whose merry laugh used to ring like chimes through the house, never

Dr. Aubertin was the last to succumb to the deep depression, but his time came: and he had been for a day or

two as grave and as sad as the rest, when one day that Rose was absent, spying on Camille, he took the

baroness and Josephine into his confidence; and condescended finally to ask their advice.

"It is humiliating," said he, "after all my experience, to be obliged to consult unprofessional persons. Forty

years ago I should have been TOO WISE to do so. But since then I have often seen science baffled and

untrained intelligences throw light upon hard questions: and your sex in particular has luminous instincts and

reads things by flashes that we men miss with a microscope. Our dear Madame Raynal suspected that

"There you see," said the doctor. "Well, then, you must help me in this case. And this time I promise to treat

"Who should it be but my poor patient? He puzzles me. I never knew a patient so fainthearted."

"A soldier fainthearted!" exclaimed the baroness. "To be sure these men that storm cities, and fire cannon,

and cut and hack one another with so much spirit, are poor creatures compared with us when they have to lie

The doctor walked the room in great excitement. "It is not his wound that is killing him, there's something on

his mind. You, Josephine, with your instincts do help me: do pray, for pity's sake, throw off that sublime

"She has not," cried the baroness, firing up. "Did I not see her lining his dressinggown for him? and she

"Yes, mother." She then suggested in a faltering voice that time would cure the patient, and time alone.

"Time! you speak as if time was a quality: time is only a measure of events, favorable or unfavorable; it kills

"Why, you surely would not imply his life is in any danger?" This was the baroness.

"Madame, if the case was not grave, should I take this unusual step? I tell you if some change does not take

place soon, he will be a dead man in another fortnight. That is all TIME will do for him."

The baroness uttered an exclamation of pity and distress. Josephine put her hand to her bosom, and a creeping

horror came over her, and then a faintness. She sat working mechanically, and turning like ice within. After a

few minutes of this, she rose with every appearance of external composure and left the room. In the passage

she met Rose coming hastily towards the salon laughing: the first time she had laughed this many a day. Oh,

what a contrast between the two faces that met therethe one pale and horror stricken, the other rosy and

"Well, dear, at last I am paid for all my trouble, and yours, by a discovery; he never drinks a drop of his

medicine; he pours it into the ashes under the grate; I caught him in the fact."

"Then this is too much: I can resist no longer. Come with me," said Josephine doggedly.

Josephine paused on the landing, and laid her hand on Rose's shoulder. It was so cold it made Rose shudder,

and exacted a promise from her not to contradict a word she should say to Camille. "I do not go to him for my

pleasure, but for his life," she said; "I must deceive him and save him; and then let me lie down and die."

"Oh, that the wretch had never been born!" cried Rose, in despair. But she gave the required promise, and

But Josephine declined this. "No," said she; "give me every advantage; I must think beforehand every word I

Rose knocked at the door. A faint voice said, "Come in." The sisters entered the room very softly. Camille sat

on the sofa, his head bowed over his hands. A glance showed Josephine that he was doggedly and resolutely

thrusting himself into the grave. Thinking it was only Rosefor he had now lost all hope of seeing Josephine

come in at the doorhe never moved. Some one glided gently but rapidly up to him. He looked up.

She whispered, "I am come to you to beg your pity; to appeal to your generosity; to ask a favor; I who

"Camille, you are torturing one who loved you once, and who has been very weak and faithless, but not so

"Why have you never been near me?" retorted Camille. "I could forgive your weakness, but not your

"It is my duty. I have no right to seek your society. If you really want mine, you have only to get well, and so

"Camille, be a man. Do not fling away a soldier's life because a fickle, worthless woman could not wait for

you. Forgive me like a man, or else revenge yourself like a man. If you cannot forgive me, kill me. See, I

"I wish I could. Oh! if I could kill you with a look and myself with a wish! No man should ever take you

from me, then. We would be together in the grave at this hour. Do not tempt me, I say;" and he cast a terrible

look of love, and hatred, and despair upon her. Her purple eye never winced; it poured back tenderness and

affection in return. He saw and turned away with a groan, and held out his hand to her. She seized it and

kissed it. "You are great, you are generous; you will not strike me as a woman strikes; you will not die to

"I see," said he, more gently, "love is gone, but pity remains. I thought that was gone, too."

"Yes, Camille," said Josephine, in a whisper, "pity remains, and remorse and terror at what I have done to a

"Well, madame, as you have come at last to me, and even do me the honor to ask me a favorI shall tryif

only out of courtesyto ah, Josephine! Josephine! when did I ever refuse you anything?"

At this Josephine sank into a chair, and burst out crying. Camille, at this, began to cry too; and the two poor

"Don't cry so," said he. "But tell me what is your will, and I shall obey you as I used before any one came

"Well, Josephine, since you care about it, I will try and live. Why did not you come before and ask me? I

Josephine cast a look of wonder and anguish on Camille, but she said nothing. She rang the bell, and, on

"Tell the doctor," said she, "Colonel Dujardin has let fall the glass." While Jacintha was gone, she scolded

Camille gently. "How could you be so unkind to the poor doctor who loves you so? Only think: to throw

away his medicines! Look at the ashes; they are wet. Camille, are you, too, becoming disingenuous?"

Jacintha came in with the tonic in a glass, and retired with an obeisance. Josephine took it to Camille.

"Drink with me, then," said he, "or I will not touch it." Josephine took the glass. "I drink to your health,

Camille, and to your glory; laurels to your brow, and some faithful woman to your heart, who will make you

forget this folly: it is for her I am saving you." She put the glass with wellacted spirit to her lips; but in the

very action a spasm seized her throat and almost choked her; she lowered her head that he might not see her

face, and tried again; but the tears burst from her eyes and ran into the liquid, and her lips trembled over the

"No, no! give it me!" he cried; "there is a tear of yours in it." He drank off the bitter remedy now as if it had

"I did not think you would be so foolish, so wicked, so cruel as to do what you have been doing."

"Come and shine upon me every day, and you shall have no fresh cause of complaint; things flourish in the

sunshine that die in the dark: Rose, it is as if the sun had come into my prison; you are pale, but you are

beautiful as evermore beautiful; what a sweet dress! so quiet, so modest, it sets off your beauty instead of

vainly trying to vie with it." With this he put out his hand and took her gray silk dress, and went to kiss it as a

"Yes, you are right," said she; "thank you for noticing my dress; it is a beautiful dressha! ha! A dress I take

a pride in wearing, and always shall, I hope. I mean to be buried in it. Come, Rose. Thank you, Camille; you

are very good, you have once more promised me to live. Get well; come downstairs; then you will see me

every day, you knowthere is a temptation. Goodby, Camille!are you coming, Rose? What are you

loitering for? God bless you, and comfort you, and help you to forget what it is madness to remember!"

With these wild words she literally fled; and in one moment the room seemed to darken to Camille.

"Over and over again. Do not look so terrified; I mean to me, but not to him. How blind he is! and how much

better you must know him than I do to venture on such a transparent deceit. He believes whatever you tell

him. He is all ears and no eyes. Yes, love, I watched him keenly all the time. He really thinks it is pity and

remorse, nothing more. My poor sister, you have a hard life to lead, a hard game to play; but so far you have

"Then God be thanked!" cried Josephine. "I am as happy today as I can ever hope to be. Now let us go

through the farce of dressing it is near dinnertimeand then the farce of talking, and, hardest of all, the

The doctor, afraid of being mistaken, said nothing for some days, but at last he announced the good news at

But I am sorry to say that as Camille's body strengthened some of the worst passions in our nature attacked

him. Fierce gusts of hate and love combined overpowered this man's high sentiments of honor and justice,

and made him clench his teeth, and vow never to leave Beaurepaire without Josephine. She had been his four

years before she ever saw this interloper, and she should be his forever. Her love would soon revive when

Then conscience pricked him, and reminded him how and why Raynal had married her: for Rose had told

him all. Should he undermine an absent soldier, whose whole conduct in this had been so pure, so generous,

But this was not all. As I have already hinted, he was under a great personal obligation to his quondam

comrade Raynal. Whenever this was vividly present to his mind, a great terror fell on him, and he would cry

out in anguish, "Oh! that some angel would come to me and tear me by force from this place!" And the next

moment passion swept over him like a flood, and carried away all his virtuous resolves. His soul was in deep

waters; great waves drove it to and fro. Perilous condition, which seldom ends well. Camille was a man of

honor. In no other earthly circumstance could he have hesitated an instant between right and wrong. But such

natures, proof against all other temptations, have often fallen, and will fall, where sin takes the angel form of

her they love. Yet, of all men, they should pray for help to stand; for when they fall they still retain one thing

The day came in which the doctor had promised his patient he should come downstairs. First his

comfortable sofa was taken down into the saloon for his use: then the patient himself came down leaning on

the doctor's arm, and his heart palpitating at the thought of the meeting. He came into the room; the baroness

was alone. She greeted him kindly, and welcomed him. Rose came in soon after and did the same. But no

Josephine. Camille felt sick at heart. At last dinner was announced; "She will surely join us at dinner,"

thought he. He cast his eyes anxiously on the table; the napkins were laid for four only. The baroness

carelessly explained this to him as they sat down. "Madame Raynal dines in her own room. I am sorry to say

Camille muttered polite regrets: the rage of disappointment drove its fangs into him, and then came the

heartsickness of hope deferred. The next day he saw her, but could not get a word with her alone. The

baroness tortured him another way. She was full of Raynal. She loved him. She called him her son; was never

weary of descanting on his virtues to Camille. Not a day passed that she did not pester Camille to make a

calculation as to the probable period of his return, and he was obliged to answer her. She related to him

before Josephine and Rose, how this honest soldier had come to them like a guardian angel and saved the

"Let me have the pleasure of telling it you my way," cried she, and told it diffusely, and kept him writhing.

The next thing was, Josephine had received no letter from him this month; the first month he had missed. In

vain did Rose represent that he was only a few days over his time. The baroness became anxious,

communicated her anxieties to Camille among the rest; and, by a torturing interrogatory, compelled him to

explain to her before Josephine and them all, that ships do not always sail to a day, and are sometimes

delayed. But oh! he winced at the man's name; and Rose observed that he never mentioned it, nor

acknowledged the existence of such a person as Josephine's husband, except when others compelled him. Yet

they were acquainted; and Rose sometimes wondered that he did not detract or sneer.

"He is too noble," said Josephine, "and too wise. For, if he did, I should respect him less, and my husband

Certainly Camille was not the sort of nature that detracts, but the reason he avoided Raynal's name was

simply that his whole internal battle was to forget such a man existed. From this dream he was rudely

awakened every hour since he joined the family, and the wound his selfdeceiving heart would fain have

skinned over, was torn open. But worse than this was the torture of being tantalized. He was in company with

Josephine, but never alone. Even if she left the room for an instant, Rose accompanied her and returned with

her. Camille at last began to comprehend that Josephine had decided there should be no private interviews

between her and him. Thus, not only the shadow of the absent Raynal stood between them, but her mother

and sister in person, and worst of all, her own will. He called her a coldblooded fiend in his rage. Then the

thought of all her tenderness and goodness came to rebuke him. But even in rebuking it maddened him. "Yes,

it is her very nature to love; but since she can make her heart turn whichever way her honor bids, she will

love her husband; she does not now; but sooner or later she will. Then she will have children(he writhed

with anguish and fury at this thought)loving ties between him and her. He has everything on his side. I,

nothing but memories she will efface from her heart. Will efface? She must have effaced them, or she could

not have married him." I know no more pitiable state of mind than to love and hate the same creature. But

when the two feelings are both intense, and meet in an ardent bosom, such a man would do well to spend a

day or two upon his knees, praying for grace divine. For he who with all his soul loves and hates one woman

is next door to a maniac, and is scarcely safe an hour together from suicide or even from homicide; this truth

the newspapers tell us, by examples, every month; but are wonderfully little heeded, because newspapers do

not, nor is it their business to, analyze and dwell upon the internal feelings of the despairing lover, whose

mad and bloody act they record. With such a tempest in his heart did Camille one day wander into the park.

And soon an irresistible attraction drew him to the side of the stream that flowed along one side of it. He eyed

it gloomily, and wherever the stagnant water indicated a deeper pool than usual he stopped, and looked, and

It looked very peaceful; and it could give peace. He thought, oh! what a blessing; to be quit of rage, jealousy,

Yet that was a sordid death for a soldier to die, who had seen great battles. Could he not die more nobly than

that? With this he suddenly felt in his pocket; and there sure enough fate had placed his pistols. He had put

them into this coat; and he had not worn this coat until today. He had armed himself unconsciously. "Ah!"

said he; "it is to be; all these things are preordained." (This notion of fate has strengthened many a fatal

resolution.) Then he had a cruel regret. To die without a word; a parting word. Then he thought to himself, it

Absorbed and strung up to desperation as he was, this voice seemed unnaturally loud, and discordant with

"She is not there; I inquired of the servant. She was out. You have not seen her, colonel?"

"Then perhaps I had better go back to the chateau and wait for her: stay, are you a friend of the family?

Colonel, suppose I were to tell you, and ask you to break it to Madame Raynal, or, better still, to the

"Monsieur," said Camille coldly, "charge me with no messages, for I cannot deliver them. I AM GOING

"In that case, I will go to the chateau once more; for what I have to say must be heard."

Camille, for his part, wondered that any one could be so mad as to talk to him about trifles; to him, a man

standing on the brink of eternity. Poor soul, it was he who was mad and unlucky. He should have heard what

Picard had to say. The very gentleness and solemnity of manner ought to have excited his curiosity.

He watched Picard's retiring form. When he was out of sight, then he turned round and resumed his thoughts

"Yes, I should have taken her with me," he said. He sat gloomy and dogged like a dangerous maniac in his

cell; never moved, scarce thought for more than half an hour; but his deadly purpose grew in him. Suddenly

he started. A lady was at the style, about a hundred yards distant. He trembled. It was Josephine.

She came towards him slowly, her eyes bent on the ground in a deep reverie. She stopped about a stone's

throw from him, and looked at the river long and thoughtfully; then casting her eye around, she caught sight

of Camille. He watched her grimly. He saw her give a little start, and half turn round; but if this was an

impulse to retreat, it was instantly suppressed; for the next moment she pursued her way.

Camille stood gloomy and bitter, awaiting her in silence. He planted himself in the middle of the path, and

"I do not shun you. I but avoid conferences that can lead to no good; it is my duty."

She looked him in the face; the water came into her eyes; after awhile she whispered, sorrowfully, "Well,

"But with all your wisdom and all your coldness," he went on to say, "you have made a mistake; you have

"It is no use. Heaven has no mercy for me. Take my advice; stay where you are; don't hurry; for what remains

She looked him in the face. "I can read your eyes, and I know you love me. I think you mean to kill me. I

"Of course they do; sooner than another should have it, they kill itthey kill it."

"Patience dies when hope dies. Come, Madame Raynal, say a prayer, for you are going to die."

"God bless you, Camille!" said the poor girl, putting her hands together in her last prayer. At this sweet touch

of affection, Camille hung his head, and sobbed. Then suddenly lashing himself into fury, he cried,

"You are my betrothed! you talk of duty; but you forget your duty to me. Are you not my betrothed this four

"Did I not suffer death a hundred times for you, to keep faith with you, you coldblooded traitress with an

"Ah, Camille! can you speak so bitterly to me? Have I denied your right to kill me? You shall never dishonor

me, but you shall kill me, if it is your pleasure. I do not resist. Why, then, speak to me like that; must the last

"I was wrong. But it is so hard to kill her I love in cold blood. I want anger as well as despair to keep me to it.

"No, Camille, let me look at you. Then you will be the last thing I shall see on earth."

At this he hesitated a moment; then, with a fierce stamp at what he thought was weakness, he levelled a pistol

She put up her hands with a piteous cry, "Oh! not my face, Camille! pray do not disfigure my face.

Herekill me herein my bosommy heart that loved you well, when it was no sin to love you."

"I can't shoot you. I can't spill your blood. The river will end all, and not disfigure your beauty, that has

"Thank you, dear Camille. The water does not frighten me as a pistol does; it will not hurt me; it will only kill

"No, it is but a plunge, and you will be at peace forever; and so shall I. Come, take my hand, Madame

She gave him her hand with a look of infinite love. She only said, "My poor mother!" That word did not fall

to the ground. It flashed like lightning at night across the demented lover, and lighted up his egotism (suicide,

like homicide, is generally a fit of maniacal egotism), even to his eyes blinded by fury.

"Wretch that I am," he shrieked. "Fly, Josephine, fly! escape this moment, that my better angel whispers to

"I say you shall. Go to your mother and Rose; go to those you love, and I can pity; go to the chapel and thank

"You have more to fear if you stay. Well, I can't wait any longer. Stay, then, and live; and learn from me how

Josephine threw herself on him with a cry, and seized his arm. With the strength excitement lent her she got

the better, and all but overpowered him. But, as usual, the man's strength lasted longer, and with a sustained

effort he threw her off; then, pale and panting, raised the pistol to take his life. This time she moved neither

There lie the dead corpses of those words on paper; but my art is powerless to tell you how they were uttered,

The weapon shook in his hand. He looked at her with growing astonishment and joy; she at him fixedly and

At these delicious words he lost all power of resistance, she saw; and her soft and supple hand stole in and

closed upon his, and gently withdrew the weapon, and threw it into the water. "Good Camille! now give me

"Josephine, have pity on me, do not deceive me; pray do not take this, my only friend, from me, unless you

She leaned her head on his shoulder, but with her hand she sought his, and even as she uttered those loving

"There, it is gone; you are saved from deathsaved from crime." And with that, the danger was over, she

He threw himself at her knees, and embraced them again and again, and begged her forgiveness in a transport

She looked down with tender pity on him, and heard his cries of penitence and shame.

They went slowly and in silence. Camille was too ashamed and penitent to speak; too full of terror too at the

abyss of crime from which he had been saved. The ancients feigned that a virgin could subdue a lion; perhaps

they meant that a pure gentle nature can subdue a nature fierce but generous. Lionlike Camille walked by

Josephine's side with his eyes bent on the ground, the picture of humility and penitence.

"My poor, lost love," sighed Josephine, "will you never understand me? You never stood higher in my esteem

than at this moment. It is the avowal you have forced from ME that parts us. The man to whom I have said

'I'must not remain beneath my husband's roof. Does not your sense of honor agree with mine?"

"What, you do not resist, you do not break my heart by complaints, by reproaches?"

"No, Josephine, all is changed. I thought you unfeeling: I thought you were going to be HAPPY with him;

"I pray daily YOU may be happy, no matter how. But you and I are not alike, dear as we are to one another.

"Yes, Josephine, all is changed; the words you have spoken have driven the fiends out of my heart. I have

nothing to do now but to obey, you to command: it is your right. Since you love me a little still, dispose of

me. Bid me live: bid me die: bid me stay: bid me go. I shall never disobey the angel who loves me, my only

"Why did you not say to me long ago, 'I love you, but I am a wife; my husband is an honest soldier, absent,

and fighting for France: I am the guardian of his honor and my own; be just, be generous, be selfdenying;

depart and love me only as angels love'? Perhaps this might have helped me to show you that I too am a man

"Perhaps I was wrong," sighed Josephine. "I think I should have trusted more to you. But then, who would

have thought you could really doubt my love? You were ill; I could not bear you to go till you were well,

quite well. I saw no other way to keep you but this, to treat you with feigned coldness. You saw the coldness,

but not what it cost me to maintain it. Yes, I was unjust; and inconsiderate, for I had many furtive joys to

sustain me: I had you in my house under my carethat thought was always sweetI had a hand in

everything that was for your good, for your comfort. I helped Jacintha make your soup and your chocolate

every day. I had the delight of lining the dressinggown you were to wear. I had always some little thing or

other to do for you. These kept me up: I forgot in my selfishness that you had none of these supports, and that

I was driving you to despair. I am a foolish, disingenuous woman: I have been very culpable. Forgive me!"

"Forgive you, angel of purity and goodness? I alone am to blame. What right had I to doubt your heart? I

knew the whole story of your marriage; I saw your sweet pale face; but I was not pure enough to comprehend

angelic virtue and unselfishness. Well, I am brought to my senses. There is but one thing for me to doyou

"Ay! for tonight I am strong; tomorrow I may be weak. Tonight everything thrusts me on the right path.

Tomorrow everything will draw me from it. Do not cry, beloved one; you and I have a hard fight. We must

be true allies; whenever one is weak, then is the time for the other to be strong. I have been weaker than you,

to my shame be it said; but this is my hour of strength. A light from heaven shows me my path. I am full of

passion, but like you I have honor. You are Raynal's wife, andRaynal saved my life."

"Ask HIM; and say I told you of itI have not strength to tell it you, but I will go tonight."

Then Josephine, who had resisted till all her strength was gone, whispered with a blush that it was too late to

"I need none to carry my sword, my epaulets, and my love for you. I shall go on foot."

Josephine said nothing, but she began to walk slower and slower. And so the unfortunate pair came along

creeping slowly with drooping heads towards the gate of the Pleasaunce. There their last walk in this world

must end. Many a man and woman have gone to the scaffold with hearts less heavy and more hopeful than

"Dry your eyes, Josephine," said Camille with a deep sigh. "They are all out on the Pleasaunce."

"No, I will not dry my eyes," cried Josephine, almost violently. "I care for nothing now."

The baroness, the doctor, and Rose, were all in the Pleasaunce: and as the pair came in, lo! every eye was

She felt this, and her eyes sought the ground: benumbed as she was with despondency, she began now to

Camille felt doubly guilty and confused. How they all look at us, he thought. Do they know what a villain I

have been? He determined to slip away, and pack up, and begone. However, nobody took any notice of him.

The baroness drew Josephine apart. And Rose followed her mother and sister with eyes bent on the ground.

Aubertin remained behind. But even he took no notice of Camille, but walked up and down with his hands

behind him, and a sad and troubled face. Camille felt his utter desolation. He was nothing to any of them. He

resolved to go at once, and charge Aubertin with his last adieus to the family. It was a wise and manly

resolve. He stopped Aubertin in the middle of his walk, and said in a faint voice of the deepest dejection,

"Doctor, the time is come that I must once more thank you for all your goodness to me, and bid you all

"What, going before your strength is reestablished?" said the doctor politely, but not warmly.

"Colonel, at another time I should insist upon your staying a day or two longer; but now I think it would be

unadvisable to press you to stay. Ah, colonel, you came to a happy house, but you leave a sad one. Poor

"I forgot; you are not aware of the calamity that has fallen upon our beloved Josephine; on the darling of the

Camille turned cold with vague apprehension. But he contrived to stammer out, "No; tell me! for Heaven's

The doctor thus pressed revealed all in a very few words. "My poor friend," said he solemnly, "her

The baroness, as I have said, drew Josephine aside, and tried to break to her the sad news: but her own grief

overcame her, and bursting into tears she bewailed the loss of her son. Josephine was greatly shocked.

Death!Raynal deadher true, kind friend dead her benefactor dead. She clung to her mother's neck,

and sobbed with her. Presently she withdrew her face and suddenly hid it in both her hands.

She rose and kissed her mother once more: and went to her own room: and then, though there was none to see

Josephine confined herself for some days to her own room, leaving it only to go to the chapel in the park,

where she spent hours in prayers for the dead and in selfhumiliation. Her "tender conscience" accused

Camille realized nothing at first; he looked all confused in the doctor's face, and was silent. Then after awhile

A red flush came to Camille's face, and his eyes went down to the ground at his very feet, nor did he once

raise them while the doctor told him how the sad news had come. "Picard the notary brought us the Moniteur,

and there was Commandant Raynal among the killed in a cavalry skirmish." With this, he took the journal

from his pocket, and Camille read it, with awestruck, and other feelings he would have been sorry to see

"And now," said Aubertin, "you will excuse me. I must go to my poor friend the baroness. She had a mother's

Aubertin went away, and left Dujardin standing there like a statue, his eyes still glued to the ground at his

The doctor was no sooner out of sight, than Camille raised his eyes furtively, like a guilty person, and looked

irresolutely this way and that: at last he turned and went back to the place where he had meditated suicide and

murder; looked down at it a long while, then looked up to heaventhen fell suddenly on his knees: and so

He whispered to himself, "And I am afraid it is too late to go away tonight." He went softly into the saloon.

Nobody was there but Rose and Aubertin. At sight of him Rose got up and left the room. But I suppose she

went to Josephine; for she returned in a few minutes, and rang the bell, and ordered some supper to be

"I was afraid you were gone altogether," said the doctor: then turning to Rose, "He told me he was going this

He stayed upon these terms. And now he began to examine himself. "Did I wish him dead? I hope I never

formed such a thought! I don't remember ever wishing him dead." And he went twice a day to that place by

the stream, and thought very solemnly what a terrible thing ungoverned passion is; and repentednot

But soon his impatient spirit began to torment itself again. Why did Josephine shun him now? Ah! she loved

Raynal now that he was dead. Women love the thing they have lost; so he had heard say. In that case, the

very sight of him would of course be odious to her: he could understand that. The absolute, unreasoning faith

he once had in her had been so rudely shaken by her marriage with Raynal, that now he could only believe

He became moody, sad, and disconsolate: and as Josephine shunned him, so he avoided all the others, and

wandered for hours by himself, perplexed and miserable. After awhile, he became conscious that he was

under a sort of surveillance. Rose de Beaurepaire, who had been so kind to him when he was confined to his

own room, but had taken little notice of him since he came down, now resumed her care of him, and

evidently made it her business to keep up his heart. She used to meet him out walking in a mysterious way,

and in short, be always falling in with him and trying to cheer him up: with tolerable success.

Such was the state of affairs when the party was swelled and matters complicated by the arrival of one we

Edouard Riviere retarded his cure by an impatient spirit: but he got well at last, and his uncle drove him in the

cabriolet to his own quarters. The news of the house had been told him by letter, but, of course, in so vague

Josephine had married Raynal. The marriage was sudden, but no doubt there was an attachment: he had some

reason to believe in sudden attachments. Colonel Dujardin, an old acquaintance, had come back to France

wounded, and the good doctor had undertaken his cure: this incident appeared neither strange nor any way

important. What affected him most deeply was the death of Raynal, his personal friend and patron. But when

his tyrants, as he called the surgeon and his uncle, gave him leave to go home, all feelings were overpowered

by his great joy at the prospect of seeing Rose. He walked over to Beaurepaire, his arm in a sling, his heart

beating. He was coming to receive the reward of all he had done, and all he had attempted. "I will surprise

them," thought he. "I will see her face when I come in at the door: oh, happy hour! this pays for all." He

entered the house without announcing himself; he went softly up to the saloon; to his great disappointment he

found no one but the baroness: she received him kindly, but not with the warmth he expected. She was

absorbed in her new grief. He asked timidly after her daughters. "Madame Raynal bears up, for the sake of

others. You will not, however, see her: she keeps her room. My daughter Rose is taking a walk, I believe."

After some polite inquiries, and sympathy with his accident, the baroness retired to indulge her grief, and

He met her at the gate of the Pleasaunce, but not alone. She was walking with an officer, a handsome,

commanding, haughty, brilliant officer. She was walking by his side, talking earnestly to him.

An arrow of ice shot through young Riviere; and then came a feeling of death at his heart, a new symptom in

The next moment Rose caught sight of him. She flushed all over and uttered a little exclamation, and she

bounded towards him like a little antelope, and put out both her hands at once. He could only give her one.

"Ah!" she cried with an accent of heavenly pity, and took his hand with both hers.

This was like the meridian sun coming suddenly on a cold place. He was all happiness.

When Josephine heard he was come her eye flashed, and she said quickly, "I will come down to welcome

The sisters looked at one another. Josephine blushed. Rose smiled and kissed her. She colored higher still,

"I see nothing wrong with it, except that it eclipses other people's, and I have long forgiven you that."

"Oh, yes, dear Rose: look what a color it has, and a fortnight ago it was pale as ashes."

"Yes, love. But I sometimes think you would forgive me if you knew how hard I pray to be better. Rose, I do

try so to be as unhappy as I ought; but I can't, I can't. My cold heart seems as dead to unhappiness as once it

"Not altogether," said Rose dryly. "Fasten my collar, dear, and don't torment yourself. You have suffered

much and nobly. It was Heaven's will: you bowed to it. It was not Heaven's will that you should be blighted

altogether. Bow in this, too, to Heaven's will: take things as they come, and do cease to try and reconcile

"Ah! these are such comfortable words, Rose; but mamma will see this dreadful color in my cheek, and what

"Ten to one it will not be observed; and if it should, I will say it is the excitement of seeing Edouard. Leave

Josephine greeted Edouard most affectionately, drew from him his whole history, and petted him and

sympathized with him deliciously, and made him the hero of the evening. Camille, who was not naturally of a

jealous temper, bore this very well at first, but at last he looked so bitter at her neglect of him, that Rose took

him aside to soothe him. Edouard, missing the auditor he most valued, and seeing her in secret conference

with the brilliant colonel, felt a return of the jealous pangs that had seized him at first sight of the man; and so

At another period of the evening the conversation became more general; and Edouard took a dislike to

Colonel Dujardin. A young man of twentyeight nearly always looks on a boy of twentyone with the air of

a superior, and this assumption, not being an illnatured one, is apt to be so easy and so undefined that the

younger hardly knows how to resent or to resist it. But Edouard was a little vain as we know; and the Colonel

jarred him terribly. His quick haughty eye jarred him. His regimentals jarred him: they fitted like a glove. His

mustache and his manner jarred him, and, worst of all, his cool familiarity with Rose, who seemed to court

him rather than be courted by him. He put this act of Rose's to the colonel's account, according to the custom

of lovers, and revenged himself in a small way by telling Josephine in her ear "that the colonel produced on

Josephine colored up and looked at him with a momentary surprise. She said quietly, "Military men do give

themselves some airs, but he is very amiable at bottom. You must make a better acquaintance with him, and

then he will reveal to you his nobler qualities.""Oh! I have no particular desire," sneered unlucky Edouard.

Sweet as Josephine was, this was too much for her: she said nothing; but she quietly turned Edouard over to

Aubertin, and joined Rose, and under cover of her had a sweet timid chat with her falsely accused.

This occupied the two so entirely that Edouard was neglected. This hurt his foible, and seemed to be so

unkind on the very first day of his return that he made his adieus to the baroness, and marched off in dudgeon

When Josephine saw he was gone, she uttered a little exclamation, and looked at Rose. Rose put on a mien of

When they talked over everything together at night, she reproached herself. "We behaved ill to poor Edouard:

"Yes,no. I am very angry with him. I won't hear a word in his favor," said Rose pouting: then she gave his

defender a kiss. "Yes, dear," said Josephine, answering the kiss, and ignoring the words, "he is a dear; and he

"Yes, you do, you little cunning thing: you are too shrewd not to see everything."

"And," said Josephine very seriously, "I almost think he would be jealous of any one that occupied your

"Oh! I will not make him unhappy, but I'll tease him a little; it is not in nature to abstain."

This foible detected in her lover, Rose was very gay at the prospect of amusement it afforded her.

And I think I have many readers who at this moment are awaiting unmixed enjoyment and hilarity from the

Edouard called the next day: he wore a gloomy air. Rose met this with a particularly cheerful one; on this,

Edouard's face cleared up, and he was himself again; agreeable as this was, Rose felt a little disappointed. "I

Josephine left her room this day and mingled once more with the family. The bare sight of her was enough

for Camille at first, but after awhile he wanted more. He wanted to be often alone with her; but several causes

cooperated to make her shy of giving him many such opportunities: first, her natural delicacy, coupled with

her habit of selfdenial; then her fear of shocking her mother, and lastly her fear of her own heart, and of

Camille, whose power over her she knew. For Camille, when he did get a sweet word alone with her, seemed

to forget everything except that she was his betrothed, and that he had come back alive to marry her. He

spoke to her of his love with an ardor and an urgency that made her thrill with happiness, but at the same time

shrink with a certain fear and self reproach. Possessed with a feeling no stronger than hers, but single, he did

not comprehend the tumult, the trouble, the daily contest in her heart. The wind seemed to him to be always

changing, and hot and cold the same hour. Since he did not even see that she was acting in hourly fear of her

mother's eye, he was little likely to penetrate her more hidden sentiments; and then he had not touched her

And this is the key to a thousand double misunderstandings; for believe me, good women are just as stupid in

To Camille, Josephine's fluctuations, joys, tremors, love, terror, modesty, seemed one grand total, caprice.

The component parts of it he saw not; and her caprice tortured him almost to madness. Too penitent to give

way again to violent passion, he gently fretted. His health retrograded and his temper began to sour. The eye

of timid love that watched him with maternal anxiety from under its long lashes saw this with dismay, and

Rose, who looked into her sister's bosom, devoted herself once more to soothe him without compromising

Josephine's delicacy. Matters were not so bad but what a fine sprightly girl like Rose could cheer up a

But then, unfortunately, this led to a fresh mystification. Riviere's natural jealousy revived, and found

constant food in the attention Rose paid Camille, a brilliant colonel living in the house while he, poor wretch,

lived in lodgings. The false position of all the parties brought about some singular turns. I give from their

One day Edouard came to tell Rose she was making him unhappy; he had her alone in the Pleasaunce; she

received him with a radiant smile, and they had a charming talk,a talk all about HIM: what the family

On this, his late jealousy and sense of injury seemed a thing of three years ago, and never to return. So hard it

Jacintha came with a message from the colonel: "Would it be agreeable to Mademoiselle Rose to walk with

Then, turning to Rose, he begged her very ceremoniously to reconsider that determination.

"To sacrifice me to this Colonel Dujardin." Still politely, only a little grimly.

"Neither mad nor a fool," was the reply. "I love you too well to share your regard with any one, upon any

terms; least of all upon these, that there is to be a man in the world at whose beck and call you are to be, and

"Dear Edouard, what folly! Can you suspect me of discourtesy, as well as ofI know not what. Colonel

"Not I. I decline the intrusion; you are engaged with me, and I have things to say to you that are not fit for

Rose colored. "I should be very sorry to choose either of you forever; but for this afternoon I choose you."

Rose beckoned Jacintha, and sent her with an excuse to Colonel Dujardin. She then turned with an air of

Then this unhappy novice, being naturally goodnatured, thanked her again and again for her condescension

in setting his heart at rest. He proposed a walk, since his interference had lost her one. She yielded a cold

assent. This vexed him, but he took it for granted it would wear off before the end of the walk. Edouard's

heart bounded, but he loved her too sincerely to be happy unless he could see her happy too; the malicious

thing saw this, or perhaps knew it by instinct, and by means of this good feeling of his she revenged herself

for his tyranny. She tortured him as only a woman can torture, and as even she can torture only a worthy man,

and one who loves her. In the course of that short walk this inexperienced girl, strong in the instincts and

inborn arts of her sex, drove pins and needles, needles and pins, of all sorts and sizes, through her lover's

She was everything by turns, except kind, and nothing for long together. She was peevish, she was

ostentatiously patient and submissive, she was inattentive to her companion and seemingly wrapped up in

contemplation of absent things and persons, the colonel to wit; she was dogged, repulsive, and cold; and she

never was herself a single moment. They returned to the gate of the Pleasaunce. "Well, mademoiselle," said

"Of course he might, and you would have lost nothing by permitting me to be courteous to a guest and an

invalid. If you had not played the tyrant, and taken the matter into your own hands, I should have found

means to soothe your jealI mean your vanity; but you preferred to have your own way. Well, you have had

"Yes, mademoiselle, you have given me a lesson; you have shown me how idle it is to attempt to force a

Next morning, early, Edouard called expressly to see her. "Mademoiselle Rose," said he, humbly, "I called to

"I am not likely to offend so again," said he sadly. "I am going away. I am sorry to say I am promoted; my

new post is ten leagues. HE WILL HAVE IT ALL HIS OWN WAY NOW. But perhaps it is best. Were I to

stay here, I foresee you would soon lose whatever friendly feeling you have for me."

Riviere explained; "I am not vain," said he, with that self knowledge which is so general an attribute of

human beings; "no man less so, nor am I jealous; but I respect myself, and I could never be content to share

your time and your regard with Colonel Dujardin, nor with a much better man. See now; he has made me

"Wickedness, spitefulness! they are not in your nature. It is all that wretch's doing."

Rose sighed, but she said nothing; for she saw that to excuse Camille would only make the jealous one more

"Will you deign to write to me at my new post? once a month? in answer to my letters?"

"Oh, yes; but for some little time I shall not be able. The duties of a new post."

Edouard went away, dogged and sad; Rose shut herself up in her room and had a good cry. In the afternoon

Josephine came and remonstrated with her. "You have not walked with him at all today."

"No; you must pet him yourself for once. I hate the sight of him; it has made mischief between Edouard and

me, my being so attentive to him. Edouard is jealous, and I cannot wonder. After all, what right have I to

Then, being pressed with questions by Josephine, she related to her all that had passed between Edouard and

"Oh, dear, yes! poor Camille! who has the power to make us all miserable, and who does it, and will go on

She then asked her if she thought it possible that Camille could be ignorant of her heart.

"Josephine," replied Rose, angrily, "these men are absurd: they believe only what they see. I have done what I

can for you and Camille, but it is useless. Would you have him believe you love him, you must yourself be

kind to him; and it would be a charitable action: you would make four unhappy people happy, or, at least, put

them on the road; NOW they are off the road, and, by what I have seen today, I think, if we go on so much

longer, it will be too late to try to return. Come, Josephine, for my sake! Let me go and tell him you will

consentto all our happinesses. There, the crime is mine." And she ran off in spite of Josephine's faint and

hypocritical entreaties. She returns the next minute looking all aghast. "It is too late," said she. "He is going

away. I am sure he is, for he is packing up his things to go. I spied through the old place and saw him. He was

sighing like a furnace as he strapped his portmanteau. I hate him, of course, but I was sorry for him. I could

"Depend on it, Josephine, we are wrong," said Rose, firmly: "these wretches will not stand our nonsense

above a certain time: they are not such fools. We are mismanaging: one gone, the other going; both losing

Josephine's color returned to her cheek, and then mounted high. Presently she smiled, a smile full of

Rose was pleased, but not surprised, to hear her sister speak so confidently, for she knew her power over

Camille. "That is right," said she, "go to him, and say two honest words: 'I bid you stay.'"

"No: I should blush all my life before you and him. I COULD not. I should let him go sooner, almost. Oh, no!

I will never ask a man to stay who wishes to leave me. But just you go to him, and say Madame Raynal is

going to take a little walk: will he do her the honor to be her companion? Not a word more, if you love me."

Josephine received Camille with a bright smile. She seemed in unusually good spirits, and overflowing with

kindness and innocent affection. On this his high gloomy brow relaxed, and all his prospects brightened as by

magic. Then she communicated to him a number of little plans for next week and the week after. Among the

rest he was to go with her and Rose to Frejus. "Such a sweet place: I want to show it you. You will come?"

He hesitated a single moment: a moment of intense anxiety to the smiling Josephine.

He seized her hand and devoured it with kisses. "Foolish thing!" murmured she, looking down on him with

ineffable tenderness. "Should I not be always with you if I consulted my inclination?let me go."

Josephine came in from her walk with a high color and beaming eyes, and screamed, "Run, Rose!"

On this concise, and to us not very clear instruction, Rose slipped up the secret stair. She saw Camille come

in and gravely unpack his little portmanteau, and dispose his things in the drawers with soldierlike neatness,

"Ah!" said Josephine with a little sigh of pleasure, and a gentle triumph in her eyes.

She had not only got her desire, but had arrived at it her way, woman's way, round about.

This adroit benevolence led to more than she bargained for. She and Camille were now together every day:

and their hearts, being under restraint in public, melted together all the more in their stolen interviews.

At the third delicious interview the modest Camille begged Josephine to be his wife directly.

Have you noticed those half tame deer that come up to you in a park so lovingly, with great tender eyes, and,

being now almost within reach, stop short, and with bodies fixed like statues on pedestals, crane out their

graceful necks for sugar, or bread, or a chestnut, or a pockethandkerchief? Do but offer to put your hand

upon them, away they bound that moment twenty yards, and then stand quite still, and look at your hand and

So Josephine started at Camille's audacious proposal. "Never mention such a thing to me again: oror, I will

not walk with you any more:" then she thrilled with pleasure at the obnoxious idea, "she Camille's wife!" and

colored all overwith rage, Camille thought. He promised submissively not to renew the topic: no more he

did till next day. Josephine had spent nearly the whole interval in thinking of it; so she was prepared to put

Lo and behold! what does he do, but meets her with just as many reasons, and just as calm ones: and urges

Heaven had been very kind to them: why should they be unkind to themselves? They had had a great escape:

why not accept the happiness, as, being persons of honor, they had accepted the misery? with many other

arguments, differing in other things, but agreeing in this, that they were all sober, grave, and full of

Finding him not defenceless on the score of reason, she shifted her ground and appealed to his delicacy. On

this he appealed to her love, and then calm reason was jostled off the field, and passion and sentiment battled

Rose, though she did not like him, had now declared on his side. She refused to show him the least attention.

This threw him on Josephine: and when Josephine begged her to help reduce Camille to reason, her answer

"Hypocrite!" with a kiss: or else she would say, with a half comic petulance, "No! no! I am on his side. Give

And then this coy young lady's very power of resistance began to give way. She had now battled for months

against her own heart: first for her mother; then, in a far more terrible conflict for Raynal, for honor and

purity; and of late she had been battling, still against her own heart, for delicacy, for etiquette, things very

dear to her, but not so great, holy, and sustaining as honor and charity that were her very household gods: and

so, just when the motives of resistance were lowered, the length of the resistance began to wear her out.

For nothing is so hard to her sex as a long steady struggle. In matters physical, this is the thing the muscles of

the fair cannot stand; in matters intellectual and moral, the long strain it is that beats them dead.

They can bubble letters in ten minutes that you could no more deliver to order in ten days than a river can

play like a fountain. They can sparkle gems of stories: they can flash little diamonds of poems. The entire sex

has never produced one opera nor one epic that mankind could tolerate: and why? these come by long, high

strung labor. But, weak as they are in the long run of everything but the affections (and there giants), they are

all overpowering while their gallop lasts. Fragilla shall dance any two of you flat on the floor before four

Only you trundle off to your business as usual, and could dance again the next night, and so on through

What did Josephine say to Rose one day? "I am tired of saying 'No! no! no! no! no!' forever and ever to him I

But this was not all. She was not free from selfreproach. Camille's faith in her had stood firm. Hers in him

had not. She had wronged him, first by believing him false, then by marrying another. One day she asked his

pardon for this. He replied that he had forgiven that; but would she be good enough to make him forget it?

"You can. Marry me: then your relation to that man will seem but a hideous dream. I shall be able to say,

looking at you, my wife, 'I was faithful: I suffered something for her; I came home: she loved me still; the

When he said that to her in the Pleasaunce, if there had been a priest at hand. In a word, Josephine longed

to show him her love, yet wished not to shock her mother, nor offend her own sense of delicacy; but Camille

cared for nothing but his love. To sacrifice love and happiness, even for a time, to etiquette, seemed to him to

be trifling with the substance of great things for the shadow of petty things; and he said so: sometimes sadly,

So Josephine was a beleagured fortress, attacked with one will, and defended by troops, onethird of which

When singleness attacks division, you know the result beforehand. Why then should I spin words? I will not

trace so illmatched a contest step by step, sentence by sentence: let me rather hasten to relate the one

peculiarity that arose out of this trite contest, where, under the names of Camille and Josephine, the two great

"Even if I could bring myself to snatch at happiness in this indelicate wayscarce a month after, oh!" And

there ended the lady's sentence. In the absence of a legitimate full stop, she put one hand before her lovely

face to hide it, and so no more. But some two minutes after she delivered the rest in the form and with the

"Yes, she would if you could be brought to implore her as earnestly as I implore you."

"No, never. Our mother would look with horror on such a proposal. A daughter of hers to marry within a

"And, besides, she loved Raynal so; she has not forgotten him as we have, almost."

"She mourns for him every day. Often I see her eyes suddenly fill; that is for him. Josephine's influence with

mamma is very great: it is double mine: but if we all went on our knees to her, the doctor and all, she would

"I see everything is against me, even my love: for that love is too much akin to veneration to propose to you a

"Oh, thank you! bless you for respecting as well as loving me, dear Camille," said Josephine.

These words, uttered with gentle warmth, were some consolation to Camille, and confirmed him, as they

Camille turned red. He understood that he had done something very stupid, but he could not conceive what.

He looked from one sister to the other alternately. Rose was smiling ironically, Josephine had her eyes bent

That evening Camille drew Rose aside, and asked for an explanation of her "maladroit."

But as this did not make the matter quite clear, Camille begged a little further explanation.

"Was it for you to tell her a secret marriage would not be delicate? Do you think she will be behind you in

delicacy? or that a love without respect will satisfy her? yet you must go and tell her you respected her too

much to ask her to marry you secretly. In other words, situated as she is, you asked her not to marry you at

"Maladroit! indeed," said Camille, "but I would not have said it, only I thought"

"You thought nothing would induce her to marry secretly, so you said to yourself, 'I will assume a virtue: I

will do a bit of cheap self denial: decline to the sound of trumpets what another will be sure to deny me if I

don'tha! ha!'well, for your comfort, I am by no means so sure she might not have been brought to do

And here this young lady's sentence ended: for the sisters, unlike in most things, were one in grammar.

Camille was so disconcerted and sad at what he had done, that Rose began to pity him: so she rallied him a

little longer in spite of her pity: and then all of a sudden gave him her hand, and said she would try and repair

"Oh!" said she, "I don't deserve all that: I have a motive of my own; let me alone, child, do. Your unlucky

"Come, mamma shall not know, and as for you, you shall scarcely move in the matter; only do not oppose me

"Ah, Rose!" said Josephine; "it is delightfulterrible, I meanto have a little creature about one that reads

"Why, do the best you can under all the circumstances. His wound is healed, you know; he must go back to

the army; you have both suffered to the limits of mortal endurance. Is he to go away unhappy, in any doubt of

your affection? and you to remain behind with the misery of selfreproach added to the desolation of

Rose then reminded Josephine that their confessor had told them a wise reticence was not the same thing as a

moral deceit. She reminded her, too, how often they had acted on his advice and always with good effect;

how many anxieties and worries they had saved their mother by reticence. Josephine assented warmly to this.

Was there not some reason to think they had saved their mother's very life by these reticences? Josephine

assented. "And, Josephine, you are of age; you are your own mistress; you have a right to marry whom you

please: and, sooner or later, you will certainly marry Camille. I doubt whether even our mother could prevail

on you to refuse him altogether. So it is but a question of time, and of giving our mother pain, or sparing her

pain. Dear mamma is old; she is prejudiced. Why shock her prejudices? She could not be brought to

understand the case: these things never happened in her day. Everything seems to have gone by rule then. Let

us do nothing to worry her for the short time she has to live. Let us take a course between pain to her and

These arguments went far to convince Josephine: for her own heart supported them. She went from her solid

objections to untenable onesa great point gained. She urged the difficulty, the impossibility of a secret

Camille burst in here: he undertook at once to overcome these imaginary difficulties. "They could be married

"You will find no priest who will consent to do such a wicked thing as marry us without my mother's

"Nor I," said Camille. "I know a mayor who will do the civil forms for me, and a priest who will marry me in

the sight of Heaven, and both will keep it secret for love of me till it shall please Josephine to throw off this

"An old cure: he lives near Frejus: he was my tutor, and the mayor is the mayor of Frejus, also an old friend

"That is my affair: I must give them some reasons which compel me to keep my marriage secret. Oh! I shall

From this day Camille began to act as well as to talk. He bought a light caleche and a powerful horse, and

elected factotum Dard his groom. Camille rode over to Frejus and told a madeup story to the old cure and

the mayor, and these his old friends believed every word he said, and readily promised their services and

Rose approved. Josephine shook her head, and seeing matters going as her heart desired and her conscience

did not quite approve, she suddenly affected to be next to nobody in the businessto be resigned, passive,

and disposed of to her surprise by Queen Rose and King Camille, without herself taking any actual part in

At last the great day arrived on which Camille and Josephine were to be married at Frejus.

The mayor awaited them at eleven o'clock. The cure at twelve. The family had been duly prepared for this

"Mamma," said she, blushing a little, "Colonel Dujardin is good enough to take us to Frejus tomorrow. It is a

"Do so, my child. I hope you will have a fine day: and mind you take plenty of wraps with you in case of a

At seven o'clock the next morning Camille and the two ladies took a hasty cup of coffee together instead of

The ladies got in, and Camille had just taken the reins in his hand, when Jacintha screamed to him from the

hall, "Wait a moment, colonel, wait a moment! The doctor! don't go without the doctor!" And the next

moment Dr. Aubertin appeared with his cloak on his arm, and, saluting the ladies politely, seated himself

The ladies managed to keep their countenances, but Dujardin's discomfiture was evident.

He looked piteously at Josephine, and then asked Aubertin if they were to set him down anywhere in

Josephine quaked. Camille was devoured with secret rage: he lashed the horse and away they went.

It was a silent party. The doctor seemed in a reverie. The others did not know what to think, much less to say.

Aubertin sat by Camille's side; so the latter could hold no secret communication with either lady.

Now it was not the doctor's habit to rise at this time of the morning: yet there he was, going with them to

Josephine was in agony; had their intention transpired through some imprudence of Camille?

Camille was terribly uneasy. He concluded the secret had transpired through female indiscretion. Then they

all tortured themselves as to the old man's intention. But what seemed most likely was, that he was with them

to prevent a clandestine marriage by his bare presence, without making a scene and shocking Josephine's

pride: and if so, was he there by his own impulse? No, it was rather to be feared that all this was done by

order of the baroness. There was a finesse about it that smacked of a feminine origin, and the baroness was

very capable of adopting such a means as this, to spare her own pride and her favorite daughter's. "The

clandestine" is not all sugar. A more miserable party never went along, even to a wedding.

After waiting a long time for the doctor to declare himself, they turned desperate, and began to chatter all

manner of trifles. This had a good effect: it roused Aubertin from his reverie, and presently he gave them the

following piece of information: "I told you the other day that a nephew of mine was just dead; a nephew I had

not seen for many years. Well, my friends, I received last night a hasty summons to his funeral."

"No, at Paris. The invitation was so pressing, that I was obliged to go. The letter informed me, however, that

a diligence passes through Frejus, at eleven o'clock, for Paris. I heard you say you were going to Frejus; so I

packed up a few changes of linen, and my MS., my work on entomology, which at my last visit to the capital

all the publishers were mad enough to refuse: here it is. Apropos, has Jacintha put my bag into the carriage?"

On this a fierce footsearch, and the bag was found. Meantime, Josephine leaned back in her seat with a sigh

of thankfulness. She was more intent on not being found out than on being married. But Camille, who was

more intent on being married than on not being found out, was asking himself, with fury, how on earth they

Well, of course, under such circumstances as these the diligence did not come to its time, nor till long after;

and all the while, they were waiting for it they were failing their rendezvous with the mayor, and making their

rendezvous with the curate impossible. But, above all, there was the risk of one or other of those friends

coming up and blurting all out, taking for granted that the doctor must be in their confidence, or why bring

At last, at halfpast eleven o'clock, to their great relief, up came the diligence. The doctor prepared to take his

place in the interior, when the conductor politely informed him that the vehicle stopped there a quarter of an

One of his friends gnashed his teeth at this mark of affection. But Josephine smiled sweetly.

Josephine inquired amiably, whether it would not be as well to postpone matters to another daymeaning

forever. "My ARDOR is chilled," said she, and showed symptoms of crying at what she had gone through.

Camille replied by half dragging them to the mayor. That worthy received them with profound, though

somewhat demure respect, and invited them to a table sumptuously served. The ladies, out of politeness, were

about to assent, but Camille begged permission to postpone that part until after the ceremony.

At last, to their astonishment, they were married. Then, with a promise to return and dine with the mayor,

they went to the cure. Lo and behold! he was gone to visit a sick person. "He had waited a long time for

Josephine was much disconcerted, and showed a disposition to cry again. The servant, a goodnatured girl,

Presently there came an old silveryhaired man, who addressed them all as his children. He took them to the

church, and blessed their union; and for the first time Josephine felt as if Heaven consented. They took a

gentle farewell of him, and went back to the mayor's to dine; and at this stage of the business Rose and

Josephine at last effected a downright simultaneous cry, apropos of nothing that was then occurring.

This refreshed them mightily, and they glowed at the mayor's table like roses washed with dew.

But oh! how glad at heart they all were to find themselves in the carriage once more going home to

Rose and Josephine sat intertwined on the back seat; Camille, the reins in his right hand, nearly turned his

back on the horse, and leaned back over to them and purred to Rose and his wife with ineffable triumph and

The lovers were in Elysium, and Rose was not a little proud of her good management in ending all their

troubles. Their mother received them back with great, and as they fancied, with singular, affection. She was

beginning to be anxious about them, she said. Then her kindness gave these happy souls a pang it never gave

Since the above events scarce a fortnight had elapsed; but such a change! Camille sunburnt and healthy, and

full of animation and confidence; Josephine beaming with suppressed happiness, and more beautiful than

Rose could ever remember to have seen her. For a soft halo of love and happiness shone around her head; a

new and indefinable attraction bloomed on her face. She was a wife. Her eye, that used to glance furtively on

Camille, now dwelt demurely on him; dwelt with a sort of gentle wonder and admiration as well as affection,

and, when he came or passed very near her, a keen observer might have seen her thrill.

She kept a good deal out of her mother's way; for she felt within that her face must be too happy. She feared

to shock her mother's grief with her radiance. She was ashamed of feeling unmixed heaven. But the flood of

secret bliss she floated in bore all misgivings away. The pair were forever stealing away together for hours,

and on these occasions Rose used to keep out of her mother's sight, until they should return. So then the

newmarried couple could wander hand in hand through the thick woods of Beaurepaire, whose fresh green

leaves were now just out, and hear the distant cuckoo, and sit on mossy banks, and pour love into one

another's eyes, and plan ages of happiness, and murmur their deep passion and their bliss almost more than

mortal; could do all this and more, without shocking propriety. These sweet duets passed for trios: for on

their return Rose would be out looking for them, or would go and meet them at some distance, and all three

would go up together to the baroness, as from a joint excursion. And when they went up to their bedrooms,

Josephine would throw her arms round her sister's neck, and sigh, "It is not happiness, it is beatitude!"

Meantime, the baroness mourned for Raynal. Her grief showed no decrease. Rose even fancied at times she

wore a gloomy and discontented look as well; but on reflection she attributed that to her own fancy, or to the

Rose, when she found herself left day after day alone for hours, was sad and thought of Edouard. And this

At last, one afternoon, she locked herself in her own room, and, after a long contest with her pride, which, if

not indomitable, was next door to it, she sat down to write him a little letter. Now, in this letter, in the place

devoted by men to their afterthoughts, by women to their pretended afterthoughts; i. e., to what they have

been thinking of all through the letter, she dropped a careless hint that all the party missed him very much,

"even the obnoxious colonel, who, bytheby, has transferred his services elsewhere. I have forgiven him

Rose was reading her letter over again, to make sure that all the principal expressions were indistinct, and that

the composition generally, except the postscript, resembled a Delphic oracle, when there was a hasty footstep,

"He is come, mademoiselle," cried she, and nodded her head like a mandarin, only more knowingly; then she

"Oh, Monsieur Riviere," said Rose, acting nonchalance. "Why could you not say so? you use such phrases,

who can conjecture what you mean? I will come to Monsieur Riviere directly; mamma will be so glad."

Jacintha gone, Rose tore up the letter and locked up the pieces, then ran to the glass. Etc.

Edouard had been so profoundly miserable he could stand it no longer; in spite of his determination not to

visit Beaurepaire while it contained a rival, he rode over to see whether he had not tormented himself idly:

Jacintha put him into the salle a manger. "By that you will see her alone," said the knowing Jacintha. He sat

In glides Rose all sprightliness and goodhumor, and puts out her hand to him; the which he kisses.

"Oh! such a piece of news; you remember Colonel Dujardin, the obnoxious colonel?"

"To Josephine and mamma. But such are the military. He only wanted to get rid of you: this done (through

your want of spirit), he scorns the rich prize; so now I scorn HIM. Will you come for a walk?"

"We will go and look for my deserter. I say, tell me now; cannot I write to the commanderinchief about

this? a soldier has no right to be a deserter, has he? tell me, you are a public man, and know everything except

"Yes! but please! I have had few amusements of late. I find it so dull without you to tease."

Formal permission to tease being conceded, she went that instant on the opposite tack, and began to tell him

how she had missed him, and how sorry she had been anything should have occurred to vex their kind good

friend. In short, Edouard spent a delightful day, for Rose took him one way to meet Josephine, who, she

knew, was coming another. At night the last embers of jealousy got quenched, for Josephine was a wife now,

and had already begun to tell Camille all her little innocent secrets; and she told him all about Edouard and

Rose, and gave him his orders; so he treated Rose with great respect before Edouard; but paid her no marked

attention; also he was affable to Riviere, who, having ceased to suspect, began to like him.

In the course of the evening, the colonel also informed the baroness that he expected every day an order to

The baroness said no more than politeness dictated. She did not press him to stay, but treated his departure as

The next day Rose varied her late deportment; she sang snatches of melody, going about the house; it was for

all the world like a bird chirping. In the middle of one chirp Jacintha interfered. "Hush, mademoiselle, your

A letter of good news came from Aubertin. That summons to his nephew's funeral was an era in his harmless

The said nephew was a rich man and an oddity; one of those who love to surprise folk. Moreover, he had no

children, and detected his nephews and nieces being unnaturally civil to him. "Waiting to cut me up," was his

generous reading of them. So with this he made a will, and there defied, as far as in him lay, the laws of

nature; for he set his wealth aflowing backwards instead of forwards; he handed his property up to an

All this the doctor's pen set down with some humor, and in the calm spirit with which a genuine philosopher

receives prosperity as well as adversity. Yet one natural regret escaped him; that all this wealth, since it was

"I am so glad," said Josephine. "Now, perhaps, he will be able to publish his poor dear entomology, that the

I linger on the brink of painful scenes to observe that a sweet and loving friendship, such as this was between

the good doctor and three persons of another sex, is one of the best treasures of the human heart. Poverty had

strengthened it; yet now wealth could not weaken it. With no tie of blood it yet was filial, sisterly, brotherly,

national, chivalrous; happy, unalloyed sentiment, free from ups and downs, from heats and chills, from

rivalry, from caprice; and, indeed, from all mortal accidents but oneand why say one? methinks death itself

does but suspend these gentle, rare, unselfish amities a moment, then waft them upward to their abiding

It was a fair morning in June: the sky was a bright, deep, lovely, speckless blue: the flowers and bushes

poured perfume, and sprinkled song upon the balmy air. On such a day, so calm, so warm, so bright, so

scented, so tuneful, to live and to be young is to be happy. With gentle hand it wipes all other days out of the

memory; it smiles, it smells, it sings, and clouds and rain and biting wind seem as far off and impossible as

Camille and Josephine had stolen out, and strolled lazily up and down close under the house, drinking the

Rose was in the house. She had missed them; but she thought they must be near; for they seldom took long

walks early in the day. Meeting Jacintha on the landing of the great staircase, she asked her where her sister

"Madame Raynal is gone for a walk. She has taken the colonel with her. You know she always takes the

Rose, who had looked as grave as a judge while Jacintha was present, bubbled into laughter. She even

repeated Jacintha's words aloud, and chuckled over them. "You know she always takes the colonel out with

She looked round, and saw the baroness at some distance in the corridor, coming slowly towards her, with

eyes bent gloomily on the ground. Rose composed her features into a settled gravity, and went to meet her.

"I wish to speak with you," said the baroness; "let us sit down; it is cool here."

Rose ran and brought a seat without a back, but well stuffed, and set it against the wall. The old lady sat down

"I invite you to explain to me the most singular, the most unaccountable thing that ever fell under my notice.

"O mamma! of course I will do anything to please you that I can; but, indeed, I don't know what you mean."

The old lady paused. The young one, naturally enough, felt a chill of vague anxiety strike across her frame.

"Rose," said the old lady, speaking very gently but firmly, and leaning in a peculiar way on her words, while

her eye worked like an ice gimlet on her daughter's face, "a little while ago, when my poor Raynalour

benefactorwas aliveand I was happyyou all chilled my happiness by your gloom: the whole house

"Mamma!" said Rose, after a moment's hesitation, "we could hardly be gay. Sickness in the house! And if

"Why, I suppose so," said Rose, stoutly; but then colored high at her own want of candor. However, she

Her selfcongratulation on that score was short; for the baroness, after eying her grimly for a second or two

"If so, tell me why is it that ever since that black day when the news of his DEATH reached us, the whole

"O mamma! is not that fancy?" said Rose, piteously. "Of what do you suspect me? Can you think I am

"No, no," said the baroness, "to do you justice, you attempt sorrow; as you put on black. But, my poor child,

you do it with so little skill that one sees a horrible gayety breaking through that thin disguise: you are no true

mourners: you are like the mutes or the undertakers at a funeral, forced grief on the surface of your faces, and

"Tra la! lal! la! la! Tra la! la! Tra la! la!" carolled Jacintha, in the colonel's room hard by.

"Hush! not a word," said the baroness. "Why remonstrate with HER? Servants are but chameleons: they take

the color of those they serve. Do not cry. I wanted your confidence, not your tears, love. There, I will not

twice in one day ask you for your heart: it would be to lower the mother, and give the daughter the pain of

refusing it, and the regret, sure to come one day, of having refused it. I will discover the meaning of it all by

myself." She went away with a gentle sigh; and Rose was cut to the heart by her words; she resolved,

whatever it might cost her and Josephine, to make a clean breast this very day. As she was one of those who

act promptly, she went instantly in search of her sister, to gain her consent, if possible.

Now, the said Josephine was in the garden walking with Camille, and uttering a wife's tender solicitudes.

"And must you leave me? must you risk your life again so soon; the life on which mine depends?"

"My dear, that letter I received from headquarters two days ago, that inquiry whether my wound was cured. A

"Camille, you are very proud," said Josephine, with an accent of reproach, and a look of approval.

"Dard!" muttered the soldier with a word of meaning. "Josephine," said he after a pause, and a little

peevishly, "how much longer are we to lower our voices, and turn away our eyes from each other, and be

Josephine was hurt at this, and for once was betrayed into a serious and merited remonstrance.

"Is this just?" said she. "Think of two months ago: yes, but two months ago, you were dying. You doubted

my love, because it could not overcome my virtue and my gratitude: yet you might have seen it was

destroying my life. Poor Raynal, my husband, my benefactor, died. Then I could do more for you, if not with

delicacy, at least with honor; but no! words, and looks, and tender offices of love were not enough, I must

give stronger proof. Dear Camille, I have been reared in a strict school: and perhaps none of your sex can

"I made but one condition: that you would not rob me of my mother's respect: to her our hasty marriage

would appear monstrous, heartless. You consented to be secretly happy for six months. One fortnight has

"So I have been told; but my conduct to you, sweet one, has not been that of a man from first to last. Yet I

could die for you, with a smile on my lips. But when I think that once I lifted this sacrilegious hand against

"Do not be silly, Camille. I love you all the better for loving me well enough to kill me. What woman would

not? I tell you, you foolish thing, you are a man: monseigneur is one of the lordly sex, that is accustomed to

have everything its own way. My love, in a world that is full of misery, here are two that are condemned to be

secretly happy a few months longer: a hard fate for one of your sex, it seems: but it is so much sweeter than

the usual lot of mine, that really I cannot share your misery," and she smiled joyously.

"Jacintha? we are in awe of the very servants. Well, if I must not say it loud I will say it often," and putting

his mouth to her ear, he poured a burning whisper of love into it"My love! my angel! my wife! my wife!

Rose came out, and found them billing and cooing. "You MUST not be so happy, you two," said she

"You must and shall help it, somehow," retorted this little tyrant. "Mamma suspects. She has given me such a

crossexamination, my blood runs cold. No, on second thoughts, kiss her again, and you may both be as

happy as you like; for I am going to tell mamma all, and no power on earth shall hinder me."

But Josephine was horrified. "What! tell my mother that within a month of my husband's death?"

"Don't say your husband," put in Camille wincing; "the priest never confirmed that union; words spoken

Josephine cut him short. "Amongst honorable men and women all oaths are alike sacred: and Heaven's eye is

in a magistrate's room as in a church. A daughter of Beaurepaire gave her hand to him, and called herself his

wife. Therefore, she was his wife: and is his widow. She owes him everything; the house you are all living in

among the rest. She ought to be proud of her brief connection with that pure, heroic spirit, and, when she is so

little noble as to disown him, then say that gratitude and justice have no longer a place among mankind."

They entered the chapel, and there they saw something that thoroughly surprised them: a marble monument

to the memory of Raynal. It leaned at present against the wall below the place prepared to receive it. The

inscription, short, but emphatic, and full of feeling, told of the battles he had fought in, including the last fatal

skirmish, and his marriage with the heiress of Beaurepaire; and, in a few soldierlike words, the uprightness,

They were so touched by this unexpected trait in Camille that they both threw their arms round his neck by

"Well, don't say too much to me," said Camille, looking down confused. "One tries to be good; but it is very

hardto some of usnot to you, Josephine; and, after all, it is only the truth that we have written on that

stone. Poor Raynal! he was my old comrade; he saved me from death, and not a soldier's deathdrowning;

and he was a better man than I am, or ever shall be. Now he is dead, I can say these things. If I had said them

They all three went back towards the house; and on the way Rose told them all that had passed between the

baroness and her. When she came to the actual details of that conversation, to the words, and looks, and

tones, Josephine's uneasiness rose to an overpowering height; she even admitted that further concealment

"Better tell her than let her find out," said Rose. "We must tell her some day."

At last, after a long and agitated discussion, Josephine consented; but Rose must be the one to tell. "So then,

you at least will make your peace with mamma," argued Josephine, "and let us go in and do this before our

courage fails; besides, it is going to rain, and it has turned cold. Where have all these clouds come from? An

They went, with hesitating steps and guilty looks, to the saloon. Their mother was not there. Here was a

Rose had an idea. She would take her to the chapel, and show her the monument, and that would please her

with poor Camille. "After that," said Rose, "I will begin by telling her all the misery you have both gone

through; and, when she pities you, then I will show her it was all my fault your misery ended in a secret

The confederates sat there in a chilly state, waiting for the baroness. At last, as she did not come, Rose got up

to go to her. "When the mind is made up, it is no use being cowardly, and putting off," said she, firmly. For

all that, her cheek had but little color left in it, when she left her chair with this resolve.

Now as Rose went down the long saloon to carry out their united resolve, Jacintha looked in; and, after a

hasty glance to see who was present, she waited till Rose came up to her, and then whipped a letter from

"I thought you might like to see it first, mademoiselle," said Jacintha, with quiet meaning.

"La, no, mademoiselle, don't you know the doctor is come home? Why, he has been in the house near an

The doctor proved Jacintha correct by entering the room in person soon after; on this Rose threw down the

When the ladies had embraced him and Camille shaken hands with him, they plied him with a thousand

questions. Indeed, he had not half satisfied their curiosity, when Rose happened to catch sight of the letter

again, and took it up to carry to the baroness. She now, for the first time, eyed it attentively, and the

consequence was she uttered an exclamation, and took the first opportunity to beckon Aubertin.

Josephine and Camille saw something was going on; they joined the other two, with curiosity in their faces.

Rose put her hand on a small table near her, and leaned a moment. She turned half sick at a letter coming

from the dead. Josephine now came towards her with a face of concern, and asked what was the matter.

The reply came from Aubertin. "My poor friends," said he, solemnly, "this is one of those fearful things that

you have not seen in your short lives, but it has been more than once my lot to witness it. The ships that carry

letters from distant countries vary greatly in speed, and are subject to detaining accidents. Yes, this is the

third time I have seen a letter come written by a hand known to be cold. The baroness is a little excited

today, I don't know from what cause. With your approbation, Madame Raynal, I will read this letter before I

Camille, from delicacy, retired to some little distance, and the doctor read the letter in a low and solemn

"MY DEAR MOTHER,I hope all are well at Beaurepaire, as I am, or I hope soon to be. I received a

wound in our last skirmish; not a very severe one; but it put an end to my writing for some time."

"Poor fellow! it was his death wound. Why, when was this written? why," and the doctor paused, and

seemed stupefied: "why, my dears, has my memory gone, or"and again he looked eagerly at the letter

"what was the date of the battle in which he was killed? for this letter is dated the 15th of May. Is it a dream?

"Why, what was the date of the Moniteur, then?" asked Aubertin, in great agitation.

"No, Rose; no one but me. Now, Josephine, do not you go and give way to hopes that may be delusive. I must

see that journal directly. I will go to the baroness. I shall excuse her less than you would."

He was scarcely gone when a cry of horror filled the room, a cry as of madness falling like a thunderbolt on a

human mind. It was Josephine, who up to this had not uttered one word. But now she stood, white as a

corpse, in the middle of the room, and wrung her hands. "What have I done? What shall I do? It was the 3d of

May. I see it before me in letters of fire; the 3d of May! the 3d of May!and he writes the 15th."

"It was the 3d of May," repeated Josephine in a hoarse voice that none would have known for hers.

Camille ran to her with words of comfort and hope; he did not share her fears. He remembered about when

the Moniteur came, though not the very day. He threw his arm lovingly round her as if to protect her against

these shadowy terrors. Her dilating eyes seemed fixed on something distant in space or time, at some horrible

thing coming slowly towards her. She did not see Camille approach her, but the moment she felt him she

"Do you love me?" still in the hoarse voice that had so little in it of Josephine. "I mean, does one grain of

"Then leave Raynal's house upon the instant. You wonder I can be so cruel? I wonder too; and that I can see

my duty so clear in one short moment. But I have lived twenty years since that letter came. Oh! my brain has

whirled through a thousand agonies. And I have come back a thousand times to the same thing; you and I

"Take care," she screamed, wildly, to her and Camille, "I am on the verge of madness; is it for you two to

thrust me over the precipice? Come, now, if you are a man of honor, if you have a spark of gratitude towards

the poor woman who has given you all except her fair namethat she will take to the grave in spite of you

all promise that you will leave Raynal's house this minute if he is alive, and let me die in honor as I have

"No, no!" cried Camille, terrorstricken; "it cannot be. Heaven is merciful, and Heaven sees how happy we

are. Be calm! these are idle fears; be calm! I say. For if it is so I will obey you. I will stay; I will go; I will die;

Ere they had recovered a miserable composure after this passionate outburst, all the more terrible as coming

from a creature so tender as Josephine, agitated voices were heard at the door, and the baroness tottered in,

followed by the doctor, who was trying in vain to put some bounds to her emotion and her hopes.

"Oh, my children! my children!" cried she, trembling violently. "Here, Rose, my hands shake so; take this

The baroness uttered a feeble moan. Her hopes died as suddenly as they had been born, and she sank

Camille stole a joyful look at Josephine. She was in the same attitude looking straight before her as at a

"To be sure," cried the doctor. "You forget, it is not the date of the paper we want, but of the battle it records.

Rose's hands that held the journal fell like a dead weight upon her knees, journal and all. She whispered, "It

"Ah!" cried the baroness, starting up, "he may yet be alive. He must be alive. Heaven is merciful! Heaven

would not take my son from me, a poor old woman who has not long to live. There was a letter; where is the

"Are we mad, not to read the letter?" said the doctor. "I had it; it has dropped from my old fingers when I

A short examination of the room showed the letter lying crumpled up near the door. Camille gave it to the

"I am old," said she; "my hand shakes and my eyes are troubled. This young gentleman will read it to us. His

eyes are not dim and troubled. Something tells me that when I hear this letter, I shall find out whether my son

Camille, thus pressed, obeyed mechanically, and began to read Raynal's letter aloud, scarce knowing what he

"MY DEAR MOTHER,I hope all are well at Beaurepaire, as I am, or I hope soon to be. I received a

wound in our last skirmish; not a very severe one, but it put an end to my writing for some time."

The paper was thin, and Camille, whose hand trembled, had some difficulty in detaching the leaves from one

"By the way, you must address your next letter to me as Colonel Raynal. I was promoted just before this last

affair, but had not time to tell you; and my wound stopped my writing till now."

"There, there!" cried the baroness. "He was Colonel Raynal, and Colonel Raynal was not killed."

"Go on, Camille. Why do you hesitate? what is the matter? Do for pity's sake go on, sir."

Camille cast a look of agony around, and put his hand to his brow, on which large drops of cold perspiration,

like a death dew, were gathering; but driven to the stake on all sides, he gasped on rather than read, for his

The wretched man could now scarcely utter Raynal's words; they came from him in a choking groan.

"he was killed, poor fellow! while heading a gallant charge upon the enemy's flank."

He ground the letter convulsively in his hand, then it fell all crumpled on the floor.

"Bless you, Camille!" cried the baroness, "bless you! bless you! I have a son still."

She stooped with difficulty, took up the letter, and, kissing it again and again, fell on her knees, and thanked

Heaven aloud before them all. Then she rose and went hastily out, and her voice was heard crying very loud,

The doctor followed in considerable anxiety for the effects of this violent joy on so aged a person. Three

remained behind, panting and pale like those to whom dead Lazarus burst the tomb, and came forth in a

moment, at a word. Then Camille half kneeled, half fell, at Josephine's feet, and, in a voice choked with sobs,

She turned her head away. "Do not speak to me; do not look at me; if we look at one another, we are lost. Go!

He bowed his head, and kissed her dress, then rose calm as despair, and white as death, and, with his knees

"I have sent her to bid them ring the bells in the village. The poor shall be feasted; all shall share our joy: my

"Mad woman that I am, I am too boisterous. Help me, Rose! she is going to faint; her lips are white."

Dr. Aubertin and Rose brought a chair. They forced Josephine into it. She was not the least faint; yet her body

obeyed their hands just like a dead body. The baroness melted into tears; tears streamed from Rose's eyes.

Josephine's were dry and stony, and fixed on coming horror. The baroness looked at her with anxiety.

"Thoughtless old woman! It was too sudden; it is too much for my dear child; too much for me," and she

kneeled, and laid her aged head on her daughter's bosom, saying feebly through her tears, "too much joy, too

Josephine took no notice of her. She sat like one turned to stone looking far away over her mother's head with

Rose felt her arm seized. It was Aubertin. He too was pale now, though not before. He spoke in a terrible

Rose, by a mighty effort, raised her eyes and confronted his full. "What else should it be?" said she.

And with these words this Spartan girl was her sister's champion once more against all comers, friend or foe.

Dr. Aubertin received one day a note from a publishing bookseller, to inquire whether he still thought of

giving the world his valuable work on insects. The doctor was amazed. "My valuable work! Why, Rose, they

all refused it, and this person in particular recoiled from it as if my insects could sting on paper."

The above led to a correspondence, in which the convert to insects explained that the work must be published

at the author's expense, the publisher contenting himself with the profits. The author, thirsting for the public,

consented. Then the publisher wrote again to say that the immortal treatise must be spiced; a little politics

flung in: "Nothing goes down, else." The author answered in some heat that he would not dilute things

everlasting with the fleeting topics of the day, nor defile science with politics. On this his Mentor smoothed

him down, despising him secretly for not seeing that a book is a matter of trade and nothing else. It ended in

Aubertin going to Paris to hatch his Phoenix. He had not been there a week, when a small deputation called

on him, and informed him he had been elected honorary member of a certain scientific society. The

compliment was followed by others, till at last certain ladies, with the pliancy of their sex, find out they had

always secretly cared for butterflies. Then the naturalist smelt a rat, or, in other words, began to scent that

entomology, a form of idiocy in a poor man, is a graceful decoration of the intellect in a rich one.

Philosopher without bile, he saw through this, and let it amuse, not shock him. His own species, a singularly

He took a world of trouble to find out the circumstances of his nephew's nephews and nieces: then he made

arrangements for distributing a large part of his legacy among them. His intentions and the proportions of his

Hitherto they had been silent, but now they all fellto and abused him: each looking only to the amount of his

individual share, not at the sum total the doctor was giving way to an ungrateful lot.

The donor was greatly amused, and noted down the incident and some of the remarks in his commonplace

book, under the general head of "Bestiarium;" and the particular head of "Homo."

Paris with its seductions netted the good doctor, and held him two or three months; would have detained him

longer, but for alarming accounts the baroness sent of Josephine's health. These determined him to return to

Beaurepaire; and, must I own it, the announcement was no longer hailed at Beaurepaire with universal joy as

Josephine Raynal, late Dujardin, is by this time no stranger to my intelligent reader. I wish him to bring his

knowledge of her character and her sensibility to my aid. Imagine, as the weary hours and days and weeks

roll over her head, what this loving woman feels for her lover whom she has dismissed; what this grateful

wife feels for the benefactor she has unwittingly wronged; but will never wrong with her eyes open; what this

lady pure as snow, and proud as fire, feels at the seeming frailty into which a cruel combination of

Put down the book a moment: shut your eyes: and imagine this strange and complicated form of human

Her mental sufferings were terrible; and for some time Rose feared for her reason. At last her agonies

subsided into a listlessness and apathy little less alarming. She seemed a creature descending inch by inch

into the tomb. Indeed, I fully believe she would have died of despair: but one of nature's greatest forces

stepped into the arena and fought on the side of life. She was affected with certain bilious symptoms that

added to Rose's uneasiness, but Jacintha assured her it was nothing, and would retire and leave the sufferer

better. Jacintha, indeed, seemed now to take a particular interest in Josephine, and was always about her with

"Good creature!" thought Rose, "she sees my sister is unhappy: and that makes her more attentive and

One day these three were together in Josephine's room. Josephine was mechanically combing her long hair,

Rose ran to her, and coming behind her saw in the glass that her lips were colorless. She screamed to

Jacintha, and between them they supported Josephine to the bed. She had hardly touched it when she fainted

"Hush!" cried Jacintha roughly, "hold your tongue: it is only a faint. Help me loosen her: don't make any

noise, whatever." They loosened her stays, and applied the usual remedies, but it was some time before she

cameto. At last the color came back to her lips, then to her cheek, and the light to her eye. She smiled feebly

"Don't be alarmed, sweet one, I am better. And I will never do it again, since it frightens you." Then

Josephine said to her sister in a low voice, and in the Italian language, "I hoped it was death, my sister; but he

"If you hoped that," replied Rose in the same language, "you do not love your poor sister who so loves you."

While the Italian was going on, Jacintha's dark eyes glanced suspiciously on each speaker in turn. But her

"No, mademoiselle, you shall not," said Jacintha. "Madame Raynal, do take my side, and forbid her."

"No. And you shall have your own way, if you will but condescend to give me a reason."

This to some of us might appear reasonable, but not to Jacintha: it even hurt her feelings.

"Mademoiselle Rose," she said, "when you were little and used to ask me for anything, did I ever say to you,

"There! she is right," said Josephine. "We should not make terms with tried friends. Come, we will pay her

devotion this compliment. It is such a small favor. For my part I feel obliged to her for asking it."

Josephine's health improved steadily from that day. Her hollow cheeks recovered their plump smoothness,

and her beauty its bloom, and her person grew more noble and statuelike than ever, and within she felt a

sense of indomitable vitality. Her appetite had for some time been excessively feeble and uncertain, and her

food tasteless; but of late, by what she conceived to be a reaction such as is common after youth has shaken

off a long sickness, her appetite had been not only healthy but eager. The baroness observed this, and it

relieved her of a large portion of her anxiety. One day at dinner her maternal heart was so pleased with

Josephine's performance that she took it as a personal favor, "Well done, Josephine," said she; "that gives

your mother pleasure to see you eat again. Soup and bouillon: and now twice you have been to Rose for some

"It is true," said she, "I eat like a pig;" and, with a furtive glance at the said pate, she laid down her knife and

"The doctor will be angry with me," said she: "he will find her as well as ever."

"Madame," said Jacintha hastily, "when does the doctor come, if I may make so bold, that I may get his room

At night when the young ladies went up to bed, what did they find but a little cloth laid on a little table in

Josephine's room, and the remains of the pate she had liked. Rose burst out laughing. "Look at that dear duck

of a goose, Jacintha! Our mother's flattery sank deep: she thinks we can eat her pates at all hours of the day

"No," said Josephine, "that would hurt her culinary pride, and perhaps her affection: only cover it up, dear,

It was covered up. The sisters retired to rest. In the morning Rose lifted the cover and found the plate cleared,

The large tapestried chamber, once occupied by Camille Dujardin, was now turned into a sittingroom, and it

One day Josephine sat there alone with some work in her hand; but the needle often stopped, and the fair head

drooped. She heaved a deep sigh. To her surprise it was echoed by a sigh that, like her own, seemed to come

Now Josephine had all a woman's eye for reading faces, and she was instantly struck by a certain gravity in

Jacintha's gaze, and a flutter which the young woman was suppressing with tolerable but not complete

Disguising the uneasiness this discovery gave her, she looked her visitor full in the face, and said mildly, but

"The doctorcomestoday," then raised her eyes all in a moment to take Josephine off her guard; but the

calm face was impenetrable. So then Jacintha added, "to our misfortune," throwing in still more meaning.

Jacintha explained. "That old man makes me shake. You are never safe with him. So long as his head is in the

clouds, you might take his shoes off, and on he'd walk and never know it; but every now and then he comes

out of the clouds all in one moment, without a word of warning, and when he does his eye is on everything,

like a bird's. Then he is so old: he has seen a heap. Take my word for it, the old are more knowing than the

young, let them be as sharp as you like: the old have seen everything. WE have only heard talk of the most

part, with here and there a glimpse. To know life to the bottom you must live it out, from the soup to the

dessert; and that is what the doctor has done, and now he is coming here. And Mademoiselle Rose will go

telling him everything; and if she tells him half what she has seen, your secret will be no secret to that old

"Don't look so, madame: don't be frightened at poor Jacintha. Sooner or later you MUST trust somebody

"Mademoiselle,I beg pardon, madame,I carried you in my arms when I was a child. When I was a girl

you toddled at my side, and held my gown, and lisped my name, and used to put your little arms round my

neck, and kissed me, you would; and if ever I had the least pain or sickness your dear little face would turn as

sorrowful, and all the pretty color leave it for Jacintha; and now you are in trouble, in sore trouble, yet you

turn away from me, you dare not trust me, that would be cut in pieces ere I would betray you. Ah,

mademoiselle, you are wrong. The poor can feel: they have all seen trouble, and a servant is the best of

friends where she has the heart to love her mistress; and do not I love you? Pray do not turn from her who has

carried you in her arms, and laid you to sleep upon her bosom, many's and many's the time."

Josephine panted audibly. She held out her hand eloquently to Jacintha, but she turned her head away and

Jacintha cast a hasty glance round the room. Then she trembled too at what she was going to say, and the

effect it might have on the young lady. As for Josephine, terrible as the conversation had become, she made

no attempt to evade it: she remained perfectly passive. It was the best way to learn how far Jacintha had

Jacintha looked fearfully round and whispered in Josephine's ear, "When the news of Colonel Raynal's death

came, you wept, but the color came back to your cheek. When the news of his life came, you turned to stone.

Ah! my poor young lady, there has been more between you and THAT MAN than should be. Ever since one

day you all went to Frejus together, you were a changed woman. I have seen you look at him asas a wife

"Hush, Jacintha! Do not tell me what you have seen: oh! do not remind me of joys I pray God to help me

forget. He was my husband, then!oh, cruel Jacintha, to remind me of what I have been, of what I am! Ah

Then Josephine drooped her head on this faithful creature's shoulder, and told her with many sobs the story I

have told you. She told it very briefly, for it was to a woman who, though little educated, was full of feeling

and shrewdness, and needed but the bare facts: she could add the rest from her own heart and experience:

could tell the storm of feelings through which these two unhappy lovers must have passed. Her frequent sighs

of pity and sympathy drew Josephine on to pour out all her griefs. When the tale was ended she gave a sigh of

"It might have been worse: I thought it was worse the more fool I. I deserve to have my head cut off." This

It was Josephine's turn to be amazed. "It could have been worse?" said she. "How? tell me," added she

Jacintha colored and evaded this question, and begged her to go on, to keep nothing back from her. Josephine

"It is then as I half suspected. You do not know all that is before you. You do not see why I am afraid of that

"You are neither of you wise. You neither of you know anything. My poor young mistress, you are but a

child still. You have a deep water to wade through," said Jacintha, so solemnly that Josephine trembled. "A

deep water, and do not see it even. You have told me what is past, now I must tell you what is coming.

"Alas! I am full of them; at your words, at your manner, they fly around me in crowds."

"Then turn your head from me a bit, my sweet young lady; I am an honest woman, though I am not so

innocent as you, and I am forced against my will to speak my mind plainer than I am used to."

Then followed a conversation, to detail which might anticipate our story; suffice it to say, that Rose, coming

into the room rather suddenly, found her sister weeping on Jacintha's bosom, and Jacintha crying and sobbing

Dr. Aubertin, on his arrival, was agreeably surprised at Madame Raynal's appearance. He inquired after her

"It was," explained Josephine, "just when I began to get better, but now it is as much as usual." This answer

had been arranged beforehand by Jacintha. She added, "The fact is, we wanted to see you, doctor, and my

ridiculous ailments were a good excuse for tearing you from Paris.""And now we have succeeded," said

Rose, "let us throw off the mask, and talk of other things; above all, of Paris, and your eclat."

"For all that," persisted the baroness, "she was ill, when I first wrote, and very ill too."

"Madame Raynal," said the doctor solemnly, "your conduct has been irregular; once ill, and your illness

announced to your medical adviser, etiquette forbade you to get well but by his prescriptions. Since, then, you

have shown yourself unfit to conduct a malady, it becomes my painful duty to forbid you henceforth ever to

This badinage was greatly relished by Rose, but not at all by the baroness, who was as humorless as a swan.

He stayed a month at Beaurepaire, then off to Paris again: and being now a rich man, and not too old to enjoy

innocent pleasures, he got a habit of running backwards and forwards between the two places, spending a

month or so at each alternately. So the days rolled on. Josephine fell into a state that almost defies

description; her heart was full of deadly wounds, yet it seemed, by some mysterious, halfhealing balm, to

throb and ache, but bleed no more. Beams of strange, unreasonable complacency would shoot across her; the

next moment reflection would come, she would droop her head, and sigh piteously. Then all would merge in

a wild terror of detection. She seemed on the borders of a river of bliss, new, divine, and inexhaustible: and

on the other bank mocking malignant fiends dared her to enter that heavenly stream. The past to her was full

of regrets; the future full of terrors, and empty of hope. Yet she did not, could not succumb. Instead of the

listlessness and languor of a few months back, she had now more energy than ever; at times it mounted to

irritation. An activity possessed her: it broke out in many feminine ways. Among the rest she was seized with

what we men call a cacoethes of the needle: "a raging desire" for work. Her fingers itched for work. She was

at it all day. As devotees retire to pray, so she to stitch. On a wet day she would often slip into the kitchen,

and ply the needle beside Jacintha: on a dry day she would hide in the old oaktree, and sit like a mouse, and

ply the tools of her craft, and make things of no mortal use to man or woman; and she tried little fringes of

muslin upon her white hand, and held it up in front of her, and smiled, and then moaned. It was winter, and

Rose used sometimes to bring her out a thick shawl, as she sat in the old oaktree stitching, but Josephine

Then, her purse being better filled than formerly, she visited the poor more than ever, and above all the young

couples; and took a warm interest in their household matters, and gave them muslin articles of her own

making, and sometimes sniffed the soup in a young housewife's pot, and took a fancy to it, and, if invited to

taste it, paid her the compliment of eating a good plateful of it, and said it was much better soup than the

chateau produced, and, what is stranger, thought so: and, whenever some peevish little brat set up a yell in its

cradle and the father naturally enough shook his fist at the destroyer of his peace, Madame Raynal's lovely

face filled with concern not for the sufferer but the pest, and she flew to it and rocked it and coaxed it and

consoled it, till the young housewife smiled and stopped its mouth by other means. And, besides the

fivefranc pieces she gave the infants to hold, these visits of Madame Raynal were always followed by one

from Jacintha with a basket of provisions on her stalwart arm, and honest Sir John Burgoyne peeping out at

the corner. Kind and beneficent as she was, her temper deteriorated considerably, for it came down from

angelic to human. Rose and Jacintha were struck with the change, assented to everything she said, and

encouraged her in everything it pleased her caprice to do. Meantime the baroness lived on her son Raynal's

letters (they came regularly twice a month). Rose too had a correspondence, a constant source of delight to

her. Edouard Riviere was posted at a distance, and could not visit her; but their love advanced rapidly. Every

day he wrote down for his Rose the acts of the day, and twice a week sent the budget to his sweetheart, and

told her at the same time every feeling of his heart. She was less fortunate than he; she had to carry a heavy

secret; but still she found plenty to tell him, and tender feelings too to vent on him in her own arch, shy, fitful

way. Letters can enchain hearts; it was by letters that these two found themselves imperceptibly betrothed.

Their union was looked forward to as certain, and not very distant. Rose was fairly in love.

One day, Dr. Aubertin, coming back from Paris to Beaurepaire rather suddenly, found nobody at home but

the baroness. Josephine and Rose were gone to Frejus; had been there more than a week. She was ailing

again; so as Frejus had agreed with her once, Rose thought it might again. "She would send for them back

"No," said the doctor, "why do that? I will go over there and see them." Accordingly, a day or two after this,

he hired a carriage, and went off early in the morning to Frejus. In so small a place he expected to find the

young ladies at once; but, to his surprise, no one knew them nor had heard of them. He was at a nonplus, and

just about to return home and laugh at himself and the baroness for this wildgoose chase, when he fell in

with a face he knew, one Mivart, a surgeon, a young man of some talent, who had made his acquaintance in

Paris. Mivart accosted him with great respect; and, after the first compliments, informed him that he had been

settled some months in this little town, and was doing a fair stroke of business.

"Killing some, and letting nature cure others, eh?" said the doctor; then, having had his joke, he told Mivart

"Are they pretty women, your friends? I think I know all the pretty women about," said Mivart with levity.

"They are not pretty," replied Aubertin. Mivart's interest in them faded visibly out of his countenance. "But

"In the absence of your greater skill," said Mivart, politely; "it is Madame Aubertin and her sister you are

Aubertin groaned. "I am rather too old to be looking for a Madame Aubertin," said he; "no; it is Madame

Mivart became confidential. "Madame Aubertin and her sister," said he, "are so lovely they make me ill to

look at them: the deepest blue eyes you ever saw, both of them; high foreheads; teeth like ivory mixed with

pearl; such aristocratic feet and hands; and their armsoh!" and by way of general summary the young

surgeon kissed the tips of his fingers, and was silent; language succumbed under the theme. The doctor

Mivart added, "If you had come an hour sooner, you might have seen Mademoiselle Rose; she was in the

"They lodge at a small farm; it belongs to a widow; her name is Roth." They parted. Dr. Aubertin walked

slowly towards his carriage, his hands behind him, his eyes on the ground. He bade the driver inquire where

the Widow Roth lived, and learned it was about half a league out of the town. He drove to the farmhouse;

when the carriage drove up, a young lady looked out of the window on the first floor. It was Rose de

Beaurepaire. She caught the doctor's eye, and he hers. She came down and welcomed him with a great

"He said he was in attendance on two paragons of beauty, blue eyes, white teeth and arms."

"And you found us out by that?" inquired Rose, looking still more keenly at him.

"Hardly; but it was my last chance of finding you, so I came. Where is Madame Raynal?"

Full twenty minutes was the doctor kept waiting, and then in came Rose, gayly crying, "I have hunted her

high and low, and where do you think my lady was? sitting out in the gardencome."

Sure enough, they found Josephine in the garden, seated on a low chair. She smiled when the doctor came up

to her, and asked after her mother. There was an air of languor about her; her color was clear, delicate, and

"A little, dear friend; you know me; always ailing, and tormenting those I love."

"Well! but, Josephine, you know this place and this sweet air always set you up. Look at her now, doctor; did

you ever see her look better? See what a color. I never saw her look more lovely."

"I never saw her look SO lovely; but I have seen her look better. Your pulse. A little languid?"

"On the contrary, you will stay here another fortnight," said the doctor, authoritatively.

"It is not the etiquette in our profession to interfere with another man's patients."

"I see nothing here that my good friend Mivart is not competent to deal with," said the doctor, coldly.

Then followed some general conversation, at the end of which the doctor once more laid his commands on

He was no sooner gone than Rose went to the door of the kitchen, and called out, "Madame Jouvenel!

The doctor drove away; but, instead of going straight to Beaurepaire, he ordered the driver to return to the

In about a quarter of an hour he came out of it, looking singularly grave, sad, and stern.

Edouard Riviere contrived one Saturday to work off all arrears of business, and start for Beaurepaire. He had

received a very kind letter from Rose, and his longing to see her overpowered him. On the road his eyes often

glittered, and his cheek flushed with expectation. At last he got there. His heart beat: for four months he had

not seen her. He ran up into the drawingroom, and there found the baroness alone; she welcomed him

cordially, but soon let him know Rose and her sister were at Frejus. His heart sank. Frejus was a long way

off. But this was not all. Rose's last letter was dated from Beaurepaire, yet it must have been written at Frejus.

He went to Jacintha, and demanded an explanation of this. The ready Jacintha said it looked as if she meant

to be home directly; and added, with cool cunning, "That is a hint for me to get their rooms ready."

"So I would," said Jacintha, faltering a little, but not perceptibly; "you might meet them on the road, if so be

Edouard hesitated; but he ended by sending Dard to the town on his own horse, with orders to leave him at

the inn, and borrow a fresh horse. "I shall just have time," said he. He rode to Frejus, and inquired at the inns

and postoffice for Mademoiselle de Beaurepaire. They did not know her; then he inquired for Madame

Raynal. No such name known. He rode by the seaside upon the chance of their seeing him. He paraded on

horseback throughout the place, in hopes every moment that a window would open, and a fair face shine at it,

and call him. At last his time was up, and he was obliged to ride back, sick at heart, to Beaurepaire. He told

the baroness, with some natural irritation, what had happened. She was as much surprised as he was.

"Of course she does, since she answers them; you cannot have inquired at the post."

"Why, it was the first place I inquired at, and neither Mademoiselle de Beaurepaire nor Madame Raynal were

Jacintha, who could have given the clew, seemed so puzzled herself, that they did not even apply to her.

Edouard took a sorrowful leave of the baroness, and set out on his journey home.

Oh! how sad and weary that ride seemed now by what it had been coming. His disappointment was deep and

irritating; and ere he had ridden half way a torturer fastened on his heart. That torture is suspicion; a vague

and shadowy, but gigantic phantom that oppresses and rends the mind more terribly than certainty. In this

state of vague, sickening suspicion, he remained some days: then came an affectionate letter from Rose, who

had actually returned home. In this she expressed her regret and disappointment at having missed him;

blamed herself for misleading him, but explained that their stay at Frejus had been prolonged from day to day

far beyond her expectation. "The stupidity of the postoffice was more than she could account for," said she.

But, what went farthest to console Edouard, was, that after this contretemps she never ceased to invite him to

come to Beaurepaire. Now, before this, though she said many kind and pretty things in her letters, she had

never invited him to visit the chateau; he had noticed this. "Sweet soul," thought he, "she really is vexed. I

At last, what he called his lucky star ordained that he should be transferred to the very post his Commandant

Raynal had once occupied. He sought and obtained permission to fix his quarters in the little village near

Beaurepaire, and though this plan could not be carried out for three months, yet the prospect of it was joyful

all that timejoyful to both lovers. Rose needed this consolation, for she was very unhappy: her beloved

sister, since their return from Frejus, had gone back. The flush of health was faded, and so was her late

energy. She fell into deep depression and languor, broken occasionally by fits of nervous irritation.

She would sit for hours together at one window languishing and fretting. Can the female reader guess which

Now, Edouard was a favorite of Josephine's; so Rose hoped he would help to distract her attention from those

He came. He was received with open arms. He took up his quarters at his old lodgings, but spent his evenings

He was very much in love, and showed it. He adhered to Rose like a leech, and followed her about like a little

This would have made her very happy if there had been nothing great to distract her attention and her heart;

but she had Josephine, whose deep depression and fits of irritation and terror filled her with anxiety; and so

Edouard was in the way now and then. On these occasions he was too vain to see what she was too polite to

He was just beginning to be jealous of Josephine when the following incident occurred:

Rose and the doctor were discussing Josephine. Edouard pretended to be reading a book, but he listened to

Dr. Aubertin gave it as his opinion that Madame Raynal did not make enough blood.

"Doctor," said Rose, "do you remember, one day you said healthy blood could be drawn from robust veins

"Then do it for us. There's my arm; take blood from that for dear Josephine!" and she thrust a white arm out

under his eye with such a bold movement and such a look of fire and love as never beamed from common

The doctor started and gazed at her with admiration: then he hung his head. "I could not do it. I love you both

Rose veiled her fire, and began to coax. "Once a week; just once a week, dear, dear doctor; you know I

should never miss it. I am so full of that health, which Heaven denies to her I love."

"Let us try milder measures first," said the doctor. "I have most faith in time."

"What if I were to take her to Frejus? hitherto, the sea has always done wonders for her."

"Frejus, by all means," said Edouard, mingling suddenly in the conversation; "and this time I will go with

you, and then I shall find out where you lodged before, and how the boobies came to say they did not know

Rose bit her lip. She could not help seeing then how much dear Edouard was in her way and Josephine's.

Their best friends are in the way of all who have secrets. Presently the doctor went to his study. Then

Edouard let fall a mock soliloquy. "I wonder," said he, dropping out his words one by one, "whether any one

This touched her. But she fought down the kindly feeling. "I am glad of it," said she, out of perverseness. She

"Not the least in the world, Rose, I assure you. I have many faults, but jealous I am not."

"Oh, yes, you are, and suspicious, too; there is something in your character that alarms me for our happiness."

"Well, if you come to that, there are things in YOUR conduct I could wish explained."

"Pray don't say that, dear Rose. I have every confidence in you; only please don't ask me to divest myself of

"She is an angel, but I should hate an angel if it came forever between you and me."

"Excuse me, she was here long before you. It is you that came between her and me."

"I came because I was told I should be welcome," said Edouard bitterly, and equivocating a little; he added,

"Bad heart! who says you are one too many in the house? But you are too exigent, monsieur; you assume the

husband, and you tease me. It is selfish; can you not see I am anxious and worried? you ought to be kind to

me, and soothe me; that is what I look for from you, and, instead of that, I declare you are getting to be quite

"I should not be if you loved me as I love you. I give YOU no rival. Shall I tell you the cause of all this? you

"Is it me you ask? am I trusted with them? Secrets are a bond that not even love can overcome. It is to talk

secrets you run away from me to Madame Raynal. Where did you lodge at Frejus, Mademoiselle the

"That is enough: since you will not tell me, I will find it out before I am a week older."

This alarmed Rose terribly, and drove her to extremities. She decided to quarrel.

"Sir," said she, "I thank you for playing the tyrant a little prematurely; it has put me on my guard. Let us part;

He took this more humbly than she expected. "Part!" said he, in consternation; "that is a terrible word to pass

"You are; you are actually jealous of my sister. Well, I tell you plainly I love you, but I love my sister better.

I never could love any man as I do her; it is ridiculous to expect such a thing."

Rose, instead of going to Josephine, her determination to do which had mainly caused the quarrel, sat sadly

down, and leaned her head on her hand. "I am cruel. I am ungrateful. He has gone away brokenhearted. And

what shall I do without him?little fool! I love him better than he loves me. He will never forgive me. I

have wounded his vanity; and they are vainer than we are. If we meet at dinner I will be so kind to him, he

will forget it all. No! Edouard will not come to dinner. He is not a spaniel that you can beat, and then whistle

back again. Something tells me I have lost him, and if I have, what shall I do? I will write him a note. I will

She sat down at the table, and took a sheet of notepaper and began to write a few conciliatory words. She was

so occupied in making these kind enough, and not too kind, that a light step approached her unobserved. She

"Dear Rose, now don't be so unkind, so cruelI have not come back to tease you, sweet one. I come to know

what I can do to please you; to make you love me again?" and he was about to kneel graciously on one knee.

"This is how you treat me for humbling myself, when it is you that ought to ask forgiveness."

"What DO you care about?except that sister of yours? You have no heart. And on this coldblooded

creature I have wasted a love an empress might have been proud of inspiring. I pray Heaven some man may

sport with your affections, you heartless creature, as you have played with mine, and make you suffer what I

Rose sank trembling on the sofa a little while: then with a mighty effort rose and went to comfort her sister.

There is an old French proverb, and a wise one, "Rien n'est certain que l'imprevu;" it means you can make

sure of nothing but this, that matters will not turn as you feel sure they will. And, even for this reason, you,

who are thinking of suicide because trade is declining, speculation failing, bankruptcy impending, or your life

going to be blighted forever by unrequited loveDON'T DO IT. Whether you are English, American,

French, or German, listen to a man that knows what is what, and DON'T DO IT. I tell you none of those

horrors, when they really come, will affect you as you fancy they will. The joys we expect are not a quarter

so bright, nor the troubles half so dark as we think they will be. Bankruptcy coming is one thing, come is

quite another: and no heart or life was ever really blighted at twenty years of age. The lovesick girls that are

picked out of the canal alive, all, without exception, marry another man, have brats, and get to screech with

laughter when they think of sweetheart No. 1, generally a blockhead, or else a blackguard, whom they were

fools enough to wet their clothes for, let alone kill their souls. This happens INVARIABLY. The lovesick

girls that are picked out of the canal dead have fled from a year's misery to eternal pain, from grief that time

never failed to cure, to anguish incurable. In this world "Rien n'est certain que l'imprevu."

Edouard and Rose were tender lovers, at a distance. How much happier and more loving they thought they

should be beneath the same roof. They came together: their prominent faults of character rubbed: the secret

Dard had been saying to Jacintha for ever so long, "When granny dies, I will marry you."

Granny died. Dard took possession of her little property. Up came a glittering official, and turned him out; he

was not her heir. Perrin, the notary, was. He had bought the inheritance of her two sons, long since dead.

Dard had not only looked on the cottage and cow, as his, but had spoken of them as such for years. The

Josephine instantly sent for him to Beaurepaire. He came, and was factotum with the novelty of a fixed

salary. Jacintha accommodated him with a new little odd job or two. She set him to dance on the oak floors

with a brush fastened to his right foot; and, after a rehearsal or two, she made him wait at table. Didn't he

bang the things about: and when he brought a lady a dish, and she did not instantly attend, he gave her elbow

a poke to attract attention: then she squeaked; and he grinned at her double absurdity in minding a touch, and

But his wrongs rankled in him. He vented antique phrases such as, "I want a change;" "This village is the last

Then he was attacked with a moral disease: affected the company of soldiers. He spent his weekly salary

carousing with the military, a class of men so brilliant that they are not expected to pay for their share of the

drink; they contribute the anecdotes and the familiar appeals to Heaven: and is not that enough?

Present at many recitals, the heroes of which lost nothing by being their own historians, Dard imbibed a taste

for military adventure. His very talk, which used to be so homely, began now to be tinselled with big swelling

words of vanity imported from the army. I need hardly say these bombastical phrases did not elevate his

general dialect: they lay fearfully distinct upon the surface, "like lumps of marl upon a barren soil,

"Do you remember how you were down upon your luck when you did but cut your foot? Why, that is nothing

in the army. They never go out to fight but some come back with arms off, and some with legs off and some

This intrusion of statistics into warfare at first cooled Dard's impatience for the field. But presently the

fighting half of his heart received an ally in one Sergeant La Croix (not a bad name for a military aspirant).

This sergeant was at the village waiting to march with the new recruits to the Rhine. Sergeant La Croix was a

man who, by force of eloquence, could make soldiering appear the most delightful as well as glorious of

human pursuits. His tongue fired the inexperienced soul with a love of arms, as do the drums and trumpets

and tramp of soldiers, and their bayonets glittering in the sun. He would have been worth his weight in

fustian here, where we recruit by that and jargon; he was superfluous in France, where they recruited by

force: but he was ornamental: and he set Dard and one or two more on fire. Indeed, so absorbing was his

sense of military glory, that there was no room left in him for that mere verbal honor civilians call veracity.

To speak plainly, the sergeant was a fluent, fertile, interesting, sonorous, prompt, audacious liar: and such

was his success, that Dard and one or two more became mere human fiction pipesof comparatively small

diameterirrigating a rural district with false views of military life, derived from that inexhaustible

At last the longthreatened conscription was levied: every person fit to bear arms, and not coming under the

allowed exceptions, drew a number: and at a certain hour the numbers corresponding to these were deposited

in an urn, and onethird of them were drawn in presence of the authorities. Those men whose numbers were

drawn had to go for soldiers. Jacintha awaited the result in great anxiety. She could not sit at home for it; so

she went down the road to meet Dard, who had promised to come and tell her the result as soon as known. At

last she saw him approaching in a disconsolate way. "O Dard! speak! are we undone? are you a dead man?"

"And you are sorry? you unnatural little monster! you have no feeling for me, then."

"General Bonaparte isn't much higher than I am, and glory sits upon his brow. Why shouldn't glory sit upon

"Because it would weigh you down, and smother you, you little fool." She added, "And think of me, that

Then, to appease her fears, Dard showed her his number, 99; and assured her he had seen the last number in

This ocular demonstration satisfied Jacintha; and she ordered Dard to help her draw the water.

"All right," said he, "there is no immortal glory to be picked up today, so I'll go in for odd jobs."

While they were at this job a voice was heard hallooing. Dard looked up, and there was a rigid military

figure, with a tremendous mustache, peering about. Dard was overjoyed. It was his friend, his

booncompanion. "Come here, old fellow," cried he, "ain't I glad to see you, that is all?" La Croix marched

towards the pair. "What are you skulking here for, recruit ninetynine?" said he, sternly, dropping the

"That is an unlucky guess of yours, for I saw the last number. Look here," and he fumbled in his pocket, and

"Sixtysix!" roared the sergeant; "no more than yours isthey are both sixtysixes when you play tricks

with them, and turn them up like that; but they are both ninetynines when you look at them fair."

"Come," said the corporal, briskly, "make up his bundle, girl, and let us be off; we have got our marching

"And do you think that I will let him go?" screamed Jacintha. "No! I will say one word to Madame Raynal,

Dard stopped her sullenly. "No! I have told all in the village that I would go the first chance: it is come, and

I'll go. I won't stay to be laughed at about this too. If I was sure to be cut in pieces, I'd go. Give over

blubbering, girl, and get us a bottle of the best wine, and while we are drinking it, the sergeant and I, you

Jacintha knew the obstinate toad. She did as she was bid, and soon the little bundle was ready, and the two

men faced the wine; La Croix, radiant and bellicose; Dard, crestfallen but dogged (for there was a little bit of

good stuff at the bottom of the creature); and Jacintha rocking herself, with her apron over her head.

"Drop that, Jacintha," said Dard, angrily; "do you think that is encouraging? Sergeant, I told this poor girl all

about glory before you came, but she was not ripe for it: say something to cheer her up, for I can't."

"I can," cried this trumpet of battle, emptying its glass. "Attention, young woman."

"Why, in that case, he does not care a straw. Every man must die; horses likewise, and dogs, and donkeys,

when they come to the end of their troubles; but dogs and donkeys and chaps in blouses can't die gloriously;

as Dard may, if he has any luck at all: so, from this hour, if there was twice as little of him, be proud of him,

for from this time he is a part of France and her renown. Come, recruit ninetynine, shoulder your traps at

duty's call, and let us go forth in form. Attention! Quickmarch! Halt! is that the way I showed you to

itleftrightleftrightleft right." And with no more ado the sergeant marched the little odd job

Edouard, the moment his temper cooled, became very sad. He longed to be friends again with Rose, but did

not know how. His own pride held him back, and so did his fear that he had gone too far, and that his

offended mistress would not listen to an offer of reconciliation from him. He sat down alone now to all his

little meals. No sweet, mellow voices in his ear after the fatigues of the day. It was a dismal change in his life.

At last, one day, he received three lines from Josephine, requesting him to come and speak to her. He went

over directly, full of vague hopes. He found her seated pale and languid in a small room on the ground floor.

"No; she is refractory. She will tell me nothing, and that makes me fear she is the one in fault."

"Oh! if she does not accuse me, I am sure I will not accuse her. I dare say I am to blame; it is not her fault

"Yes; but she loves others better, and she holds me out no hope it will ever be otherwise. On this one point

how can I hope for your sympathy; unfortunately for me you are one of my rivals. She told me plainly she

Josephine smiled sadly. "Dear Edouard," said she, "you must not attach so much importance to every word

we say. Does Rose at her age know everything? Is she a prophet? Perhaps she really fancies she will always

love her sister as she does now; but you are a man of sense; you ought to smile and let her talk. When you

marry her you will take her to your own house; she will only see me now and then; she will have you and

your affection always present. Each day some new tie between you and her. You two will share every joy,

every sorrow. Your children playing at your feet, and reflecting the features of both parents, will make you

one. Your hearts will melt together in that blessed union which raises earth so near to heaven; and then you

will wonder you could ever be jealous of poor Josephine, who must never hopeah, me!"

Edouard, wrapped up in himself, mistook Josephine's emotion at the picture she had drawn of conjugal love.

"Madame Raynal," said he, "you are an angel, and I am a fiend. Jealousy must be the meanest of all

sentiments. I never will be jealous again, above all, of you, sweet angel. Why, you are my sister as well as

"Never again to be broken. I will go and ask her pardon. What is the matter now?"

For Jacintha was cackling very loud, and dismissing with ignominy two beggars, male and female.

She was industry personified, and had no sympathy with mendicity. In vain the couple protested, Heaven

knows with what truth, that they were not beggars, but mechanics out of work. "March! tramp!" was

Jacintha's least word. She added, giving the rein to her imagination, "I'll loose the dog." The man moved

away, the woman turned appealingly to Edouard. He and Josephine came towards the group. She had got a

sort of large hood, and in that hood she carried an infant on her shoulders. Josephine inspected it. "It looks

"What can you expect, young lady?" said the woman. "Its mother had to rise and go about when she ought to

"Oh, dear!" cried Josephine. "Jacintha, give them some food and a nice bottle of wine."

"That I will," cried Jacintha, changing her tone with courtierlike alacrity. "I did not see she was nursing."

Josephine put a franc into the infant's hand; the little fingers closed on it with that instinct of appropriation,

which is our first and often our last sentiment. Josephine smiled lovingly on the child, and the child seeing

"Bless it," said Josephine, and thereupon her lovely head reared itself like a snake's, and then darted down on

"Blessings on you, my lady!" she cried. "I pray the Lord not to forget this when a woman's trouble comes on

you in your turn! It is a small child, mademoiselle, but it is not an unhealthy one. See." Inspection was

"Ugh!" said he, when she rejoined him, "how could you kiss that nasty little brat?"

"Dear Edouard, don't speak so of a poor little innocent. Who would pity them if we women did not? It had

"It is no compliment when you are affectionate to anybody; you overflow with benevolence on all creation,

She took him to Rose, and she said, "There, whenever good friends quarrel, it is understood they were both in

the wrong. Bygones are to be bygones; and when your time comes round to quarrel again, please consult me

first, since it is me you will afflict." She left them together, and went and tapped timidly at the doctor's study.

Aubertin received her with none of that reserve she had seen in him. He appeared both surprised and pleased

at her visit to his little sanctum. He even showed an emotion Josephine was at a loss to account for. But that

wore off during the conversation, and, indeed, gave place to a sort of coldness.

"Dear friend," said she, "I come to consult you about Rose and Edouard." She then told him what had

happened, and hinted at Edouard's one fault. The doctor smiled. "It is curious. You have come to draw my

attention to a point on which it has been fixed for some days past. I am preparing a cure for the two young

He then showed her a deed, wherein he had settled sixty thousand francs on Rose and her children.

"Edouard," said he, "has a good place. He is active and rising, and with my sixty thousand francs, and a little

purse of ten thousand more for furniture and nonsense, they can marry next week, if they like. Yes, marriage

is a sovereign medicine for both of these patients. She does not love him quite enough. Cure: marriage. He

"Can't help it. I did not make men and women. We must take human nature as we find it, and thank God for it

The doctor sighed; then said gently, "They shall be happy: as happy as you wish them."

Meantime, in another room, a reconciliation scene was taking place, and the mutual concessions of two

Rose made light of it to her mother, but in her own heart she grew more and more anxious day by day. She

held secret conferences with Jacintha; that sagacious personage had a plan to wake Josephine from her

deathly languor, and even soothe her nerves, and check those pitiable fits of nervous irritation to which she

had become subject. Unfortunately, Jacintha's plan was so difficult and so dangerous, that at first even the

courageous Rose recoiled from it; but there are dangers that seem to diminish when you look them long in the

The whole party was seated in the tapestried room: Jacintha was there, sewing a pair of sheets, at a respectful

distance from the gentlefolks, absorbed in her work; but with both ears on full cock.

The doctor, holding his glasses to his eye, had just begun to read out the Moniteur.

The baroness sat close to him, Edouard opposite; and the young ladies each in her corner of a large luxurious

"'The Austrians left seventy cannon, eight thousand men, and three colors upon the field. Army of the North:

General Menard defeated the enemy after a severe engagement, taking thirteen fieldpieces and a quantity of

The baroness made a narrowminded renmark. "That is always the way with these journals," said she.

"Austrians! Prussians! when it's Egypt one wants to hear about.""No, not a word about Egypt," said the

doctor; "but there is a whole column about the Rhine, where Colonel Dujardin isand Dard. If I was

dictator, the first nuisance I would put down is small type." He then spelled out a sanguinary engagement:

"eight thousand of the enemy killed. We have some losses to lament. Colonel Dujardin"

The doctor went coolly on. "At the head of the 24th brigade made a brilliant charge on the enemy's flank, that

"How badly you do read," said the old lady, sharply. "I thought he was gone; instead of that he has covered

himself with glory; but it is all our doing, is it not, young ladies? We saved his life."

She only passed them, as it were, under her own nostrils; then held them to Josephine, who was now

observed to be trembling all over. Rose contrived to make it appear that this was mere sympathy on

"Don't be silly, girls," cried the baroness, cheerfully; "there is nobody killed that we care about."

Edouard fell into a gloomy silence and tortured himself about Camille, and Rose's anxiety and agitation.

By and by the new servant brought in a letter. It was the long expected one from Egypt.

"Here is something better than salts for you. A long letter, Josephine, and all in his own hand; so he is safe,

thank Heaven! I was beginning to be uneasy again. You frightened me for that poor Camille: but this is worth

a dozen Camilles; this is my son; I would give my old life for him.""My dear Mother('Bless him!'), my

dear wife, and my dear sister('Well! you sit there like two rocks!') We have just gained a battlefifty

colors. ('What do you think of that?') All the enemy's baggage and ammunition are in our hands. ('This is

something like a battle, this one.') Also the Pasha of Natolie. ('Ah! the Pasha of Natolie; an important

personage, no doubt, though I never had the honor of hearing of him. Do you hear?you on the sofa. My

son has captured the Pasha of Natolie. He is as brave as Caesar.') But this success is not one of those that lead

to important results ('Never mind, a victory is a victory'), and I should not wonder if Bonaparte was to dash

home any day. If so, I shall go with him, and perhaps spend a whole day with you, on my way to the Rhine."

At this prospect a ghastly look passed quick as lightning between Rose and Josephine.

The baroness beckoned Josephine to come close to her, and read her what followed in a lower tone of voice.

"Tell my wife I love her more and more every day. I don't expect as much from her, but she will make me

very happy if she can make shift to like me as well as her family do.""No danger! What husband deserves

to be loved as he does? I long for his return, that his wife, his mother, and his sister may all combine to teach

this poor soldier what happiness means. We owe him everything, Josephine, and if we did not love him, and

The letter circulated. Meantime, the baroness conversed with Aubertin in quite an undertone.

"My friend, look at Josephine. That girl is ill, or else she is going to be ill."

"Neither the one nor the other, madame," said Aubertin, looking her coolly in the face.

The baroness rose. "Now, children, for our evening walk. We shall enjoy it now."

"I trust you may: but for all that I must forbid the evening air to one of the partyto Madame Raynal."

The baroness came to him and whispered, "That is right. Thank you. See what is the matter with her, and tell

At the same time Jacintha asked permission to pass the rest of the evening with her relations in the village.

But why that swift, quivering glance of intelligence between Jacintha and Rose de Beaurepaire when the

Josephine and the doctor were left alone. Now Josephine had noticed the old people whisper and her mother

glance her way, and the whole woman was on her guard. She assumed a languid complacency, and by way of

shield, if necessary, took some work, and bent her eyes and apparently her attention on it.

She saw he had something weighty on his mind. "The air would have done me no harm," said she.

"Oh, no, dear friend. Only I think I should have liked a little walk this evening."

"Josephine," said the doctor quietly, "when you were a child I saved your life."

"I have often heard my mother speak of it. I was choked by the croup, and you had the courage to lance my

"Had I?" said the doctor, with a smile. He added gravely, "It seems then that to be cruel is sometimes

"Well, our affection is not perfect. I don't know which is most to blame, but after all these years I have failed

to inspire you with confidence." The doctor's voice was sad, and Josephine's bosom panted.

"Josephine, you have now for full twelve months suffered in body and mind, yet you have never come to me

for counsel, for comfort, for an old man's experience and advice, nor even for medical aid."

Josephine trembled, but defended herself after the manner of her sex. "Dear doctor," said she, "I love you all

the better for this. Your regard for me has for once blinded your science. I am not so robust as you have

known me, but there is nothing serious the matter with me. Let us talk of something else. Besides, it is not

"Very well; since there is nothing serious or interesting in your case, we will talk about something that is both

But the doctor leaned over the table to her, and said in a cautious and most emphatic whisper, "We will talk

The work dropped from Josephine's hands: she turned her face wildly on Aubertin, and faltered out, "Mmy

When the doctor repeated these words, when Josephine looking in his face saw he spoke from knowledge,

however acquired, and not from guess, she glided down slowly off the sofa and clasped his knees as he stood

"Unhappy young lady," said he, "did you think you had deceived me, or that you are fit to deceive any but the

blind? Your face, your anguish after Colonel Dujardin's departure, your languor, and then your sudden

robustness, your appetite, your caprices, your strange sojourn at Frejus, your changed looks and loss of health

on your return! Josephine, your old friend has passed many an hour thinking of you, divining your folly,

Josephine faltered out a lame excuse. If she had revered him less she could have borne to confess to him. She

She consented almost eagerly, and told himnearly all. The old man was deeply affected. He murmured in a

broken voice, "Your story is the story of your sex, selfsacrifice, first to your mother, then to Camille, now to

"And he is well worthy of any sacrifice I can make," said Josephine. "But oh, how hard it is to live!"

"I hope to make it less hard to you ere long," said the doctor quietly. He then congratulated himself on having

forced Josephine to confide in him. "For," said he, "you never needed an experienced friend more than at this

moment. Your mother will not always be so blind as of late. Edouard is suspicious. Jacintha is a shrewd

Josephine was not at the end of her concealments: she was ashamed to let him know she had made a

"Then," continued Aubertin, "there is the terrible chance of Raynal's return. But ere I take on me to advise

"It is the answer of a mad woman, is it not? Doctor, I am little better. My foot has slipped on the edge of a

precipice. I close my eyes, and let myself glide down it. What will become of me?"

Josephine did not immediately reply: her thoughts turned inwards. The good doctor was proceeding to

congratulate her on being cured of a fatal passion, when she stopped him with wonder in her face. "Not love

him! How can I help loving him? I was his betrothed. I wronged him in my thoughts. War, prison, anguish,

could not kill him; he loved me so. He struggled bleeding to my feet; and could I let him die, after all? Could

The doctor sighed deeply; but, arming himself with the necessary resolution, he sternly replied, "A woman of

your name cannot vacillate between love and honor; such vacillations have but one end. I will not let you

drift a moral wreck between passion and virtue; and that is what it will come to if you hesitate now."

"Hesitate! Who can say I have hesitated where my honor was concerned? You can read our bodies then, but

not our hearts. What! you see me so pale, forlorn, and dead, and that does not tell you I have bid Camille

farewell forever? That we might be safer still I have not even told him he is a father: was ever woman so

cruel as I am? I have written him but one letter, and in that I must deceive him. I told him I thought I might

one day be happy, if I could hear that he did not give way to despair. I told him we must never meet again in

this world. So now come what will: show me my duty and I will do it. This endless deceit burns my heart.

Shall I tell my husband? It will be but one pang more, one blush more for me. But my mother!" and, thus

appealed to, Dr. Aubertin felt, for the first time, all the difficulty of the situation he had undertaken to cure.

"Ah," said Josephine, "you see." Then, after a short silence, she said despairingly, "This is my only hope: that

poor Raynal will be long absent, and that ere he returns mamma will lie safe from sorrow and shame in the

little chapel. Doctor, when a woman of my age forms such wishes as these, I think you might pity her, and

forgive her illtreatment of you, for she cannot be very happy. Ah me! ah me! ah me!"

"Courage, poor soul! All is now in my hands, and I will save you," said the doctor, his voice trembling in

spite of him. "Guilt lies in the intention. A more innocent woman than you does not breathe. Two courses lay

open to you: to leave this house with Camille Dujardin, or to dismiss him, and live for your hard duty till it

shall please Heaven to make that duty easy (no middle course was tenable for a day); of these two paths you

chose the right one, and, having chosen, I really think you are not called on to reveal your misfortune, and

make those unhappy to whose happiness you have sacrificed your own for years to come."

"The young use that word lightly. The old have almost ceased to use it. They have seen how few earthly

He resumed, "You think only of others, Josephine, but I shall think of you as well. I shall not allow your life

to be wasted in a needless struggle against nature." Then turning to Rose, who had glided into the room, and

stood amazed, "Her griefs were as many before her child was born, yet her health stood firm. Why? because

nature was on her side. Now she is sinking into the grave. Why? because she is defying nature. Nature

intended her to be pressing her child to her bosom day and night; instead of that, a peasant woman at Frejus

At this, Josephine leaned her face on her hands on the doctor's shoulder. In this attitude she murmured to him,

"I have never seen him since I left Frejus." Dr. Aubertin sighed for her. Emboldened by this, she announced

her intention of going to Frejus the very next day to see her little Henri. But to this Dr. Aubertin demurred.

"What, another journey to Frejus?" said he, "when the first has already roused Edouard's suspicions; I can

Then Josephine surprised them both. She dropped her coaxing voice and pecked the doctor like an irritated

pigeon. "Take care," said she, "don't be too cruel to me. You see I am obedient, resigned. I have given up all I

lived for: but if I am never to have my little boy's arms round me to console me, thenwhy torment me any

longer? Why not say to me, 'Josephine, you have offended Heaven; pray for pardon, and die'?"

Then the doctor was angry in his turn. "Oh, go then," said he, "go to Frejus; you will have Edouard Riviere

for a companion this time. Your first visit roused his suspicions. So before you go tell your mother all; for

since she is sure to find it out, she had better hear it from you than from another."

"Oh, yes! he has a heart," said Josephine: "he is my best friend. He will let me see my boy."

All this, and the tearful eyes and coaxing yet trembling voice, was hard to resist. But Aubertin saw clearly,

and stood firm. He put his handkerchief to his eyes a moment: then took the pining young mother's hand.

"And, do you think," said he, "I do not pity you and love your boy? Ah! he will never want a father whilst I

live; and from this moment he is under my care. I will go to see him; I will bring you news, and all in good

time; I will place him where you shall visit him without imprudence; but, for the present, trust a wiser head

Weighed down by his goodsense and kindness, Josephine resisted no longer in words. She just lifted her

hands in despair and began to cry. It was so piteous, Aubertin was ready to yield in turn, and consent to any

"Promise, dear," repeated Rose, and this time with an intonation so fine that it attracted Josephine's notice,

For once she could not make the telegraph out: but she could see it was playing, and that was enough. She did

Finding her so submissive all of a sudden, he went on to suggest that she must not go kissing every child she

saw. "Edouard tells me he saw you kissing a beggar's brat. The young rogue was going to quiz you about it at

the dinnertable; luckily, he told me his intention, and I would not let him. I said the baroness would be

annoyed with you for descending from your dignityand exposing a noble family to fleashush! here he

However, he turned it off into play. "What have you been saying to her, monsieur, to interest her so? Give me

The doctor was taken aback for a moment, but at last he said slyly, "I have been proposing to her to name the

It was a balmy evening. Edouard was to leave them for a week the next day. They were alone: Rose was

determined he should go away quite happy. Everything was in Edouard's favor: he pleaded his cause warmly:

she listened tenderly: this happy evening her piquancy and archness seemed to dissolve into tenderness as she

and Edouard walked hand in hand under the moon: a tenderness all the more heavenly to her devoted lover,

For a little while she forgot everything but her companion. In that soft hour he won her to name the day, after

He pressed a delicious first kiss upon two velvet lips that in their innocence scarcely shunned the sweet

For all that, the bond was no sooner sealed after this fashion, than the lady's cheek began to burn.

And with these words something returned to her mind with its full force: something that Edouard had actually

"Edouard," said she, "can you get up early in the morning? If you can, meet me here tomorrow before any

"Sooner if you like. Mamma bade me come and read to her in her room tonight. She will be waiting for me.

"Well, we must not mind that, dear; in three weeks' time we are to have too much of one another, you know,

"Too much! I shall never have enough of you. I shall hate the night which will rob me of the sight of you for

"If you can't see me, perhaps you may hear me; my tongue runs by night as well as by day."

"Well, that is a comfort," said Edouard, gravely. "Yes, little quizzer, I would rather hear you scold than an

"No, no!" said she, laughing and blushing. "How rude you are. Next time we meet."

"Edouard, don't be silly. I am ashamed of saying the same thing so oftenI won't say it any more. What is

Then they walked very slowly towards the house, and once more Rose left quizzing, and was all tenderness.

"No, my own; I am in heaven. Common facescommon voices would bring me down to earth. Let me be

alone;your sweet words ringing in my ear. I will dilute you with nothing meaner than the stars. See how

"Dear Edouard, you flatter me, you spoil me. Alas! why am I not more worthy of your love?"

"But I will atone for all. I will make you a better(here she substituted a full stop for a substantive)than

She lingered at the door: a proof that if Edouard, at that particular moment, had seized another kiss, there

But he was not so impudent as some. He had been told to wait till the next meeting for that. He prayed

It was about nine o'clock. Edouard, instead of returning to his lodgings, started down towards the town, to

conclude a bargain with the innkeeper for an English mare he was in treaty for. He wanted her for

tomorrow's work; so that decided him to make the purchase. In purchases, as in other matters, a feather

turns the balanced scale. He sauntered leisurely down. It was a very clear night; the full moon and the stars

shining silvery and vivid. Edouard's heart swelled with joy. He was loved after all, deeply loved; and in three

short weeks he was actually to be Rose's husband: her lord and master. How like a heavenly dream it all

seemedthe first hopeless courtship, and now the wedding fixed! But it was no dream; he felt her soft words

still murmur music at his heart, and the shadow of her velvet lips slept upon his own.

He had strolled about a league when he heard the ring of a horse's hoofs coming towards him, accompanied

by a clanking noise; it came nearer and nearer, till it reached a hill that lay a little ahead of Edouard; then the

Presently, as if they had started from the earth, up popped between Edouard and the sky, first a cocked hat

that seemed in that light to be cut with a razor out of flint; then the wearer, phosphorescent here and there; so

brightly the keen moonlight played on his epaulets and steel scabbard. A step or two nearer, and Edouard

After the first warm greeting, and questions and answers, Raynal told him he was on his way to the Rhine

I am allowed six days to get there. I made a calculation, and found I could give Beaurepaire half a day. I shall

have to make up for it by hard riding. You know me; always in a hurry. It is Bonaparte's fault this time. He is

"Why, colonel," said Edouard, "let us make haste then. Mind they go early to rest at the chateau."

"Not coming your way? Yes, but I am. Yours is a face I don't see every day, colonel; besides I would not

miss THEIR faces, especially the baroness's and Madame Raynal's, at sight of you; and, besides," and the

young gentleman chuckled to himself, and thought of Rose's words, "the next time we meet;" well, this will

Colonel Raynal nodded assent. Edouard took a run, and lighted like a monkey on the horse's crupper. He

pranced and kicked at this unexpected addition; but the spur being promptly applied to his flanks, he bounded

off with a snort that betrayed more astonishment than satisfaction, and away they cantered to Beaurepaire,

"There," said Edouard, "I was afraid they would be gone to bed; and they are. The very house seems

"That is a pity," said Raynal, "for this chateau is the stronghold of etiquette. They will be two hours dressing

before they will come out and shake hands. I must put my horse into the stable. Go you and give the alarm."

"I will, colonel. Stop, first let me see whether none of them are up, after all."

And Edouard walked round the chateau, and soon discovered a light at one window, the window of the

tapestried room. Running round the other way he came slap upon another light: this one was nearer the

ground. A narrow but massive door, which he had always seen not only locked but screwed up, was wide

open; and through the aperture the light of a candle streamed out and met the moonlight streaming in.

A young woman was sleeping with her feet in the silvery moonlight, and her head in the orangecolored

blaze of a flat candle, which rested on the next step above of a fine stone staircase, whose existence was now

He touched her on the shoulder to wake her. No. Jacintha was sleeping as only tired domestics can sleep. He

might have taken the candle and burnt her gown off her back. She had found a step that fitted into the small

of her back, and another that supported her head, and there she was fast as a door.

"It is not a bedroom, colonel; it is our sittingroom now. We shall find them all there, or at least the young

ladies; and perhaps the doctor. The baroness goes to bed early. Meantime I can show you one of our dramatis

Moonlight by itself seems white, and candlelight by itself seems yellow; but when the two come into close

So Jacintha, with her shoes in this celestial sheen, and her face in that demoniacal glare, was enough to knock

"Make a good sentinelthis one," said Raynal"an outlying picket for instance, on rough ground, in front

"Ha! ha! colonel! Let us see where this staircase leads. I have an idea it will prove a short cut."

"To the saloon, or somewhere, or else to some of Jacintha's haunts. Serve her right for going to sleep at the

"Forward thenno, halt! Suppose it leads to the bedrooms? Mind this is a thundering place for ceremony.

At this they hesitated; and Edouard himself thought, on the whole, it would be better to go and hammer at the

Now while they hesitated, a soft delicious harmony of female voices suddenly rose, and seemed to come and

run round the walls. The men looked at one another in astonishment; for the effect was magical. The staircase

being enclosed on all sides with stone walls and floored with stone, they were like flies inside a violoncello;

the voices rang above, below, and on every side of the vibrating walls. In some epochs spirits as hardy as

Raynal's, and wits as quick as Riviere's, would have fled then and there to the nearest public, and told over

cups how they had heard the dames of Beaurepaire, long since dead, holding their revel, and the conscious

But this was an incredulous age. They listened, and listened, and decided the sounds came from upstairs.

"Surprise them! what for? It is not the enemyfor once. What is the good of surprising our friends?"

Storming parties and surprises were no novelty and therefore no treat to Raynal.

"It will be so delightful to see their faces at first sight of you. O colonel, for my sake! Don't spoil it by going

tamely in at the front door, after coming at night from Egypt for half an hour."

Raynal grumbled something about its being a childish trick; but to please Edouard consented at last; only

stipulated for a light: "or else," said he, "we shall surprise ourselves instead with a broken neck, going over

ground we don't know to surprise the nativesour skirmishers got nicked that way now and then in Egypt."

"Yes, colonel, I will go first with Jacintha's candle." Edouard mounted the stairs on tiptoe. Raynal followed.

The solid stone steps did not prate. The men had mounted a considerable way, when puff a blast of wind

came through a hole, and out went Edouard's candle. He turned sharply round to Raynal. "Peste!" said he in a

vicious whisper. But the other laid his hand on his shoulder and whispered, "Look to the front." He looked,

and, his own candle being out, saw a glimmer on ahead. He crept towards it. It was a taper shooting a feeble

light across a small aperture. They caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a small apartment. Yet Edouard

recognized the carpet of the tapestried roomwhich was a very large room. Creeping a yard nearer, he

discovered that it was the tapestried room, and that what had seemed the further wall was only the screen,

And Raynal went softly up and put his foot quietly through the aperture, which he now saw was made by a

panel drawn back close to the ground; and stood in the tapestried chamber. The carpet was thick; the voices

favored the stealthy advance; the floor of the old house was like a rock; and Edouard put his face through the

aperture, glowing all over with anticipation of the little scream of joy that would welcome his friend dropping

The feeling was rendered still more piquant by a sharp curiosity that had been growing on him for some

minutes past. For why was this passage opened tonight?he had never seen it opened before. And why was

But this was not all. Now that they were in the room both men became conscious of another sound besides

the ladies' voicesa very peculiar sound. It also came from behind the screen. They both heard it, and

showed, by the puzzled looks they cast at one another, that neither could make out what on earth it was. It

consisted of a succession of little rustles, followed by little thumps on the floor.

But what was curious, too, this rustle, thumprustle, thumpfell exactly into the time of the music; so that,

clearly, either the rustle thump was being played to the tune, or the tune sung to the rustle thump.

This last touch of mystery inflamed Edouard's impatience beyond bearing: he pointed eagerly and merrily to

the corner of the screen. Raynal obeyed, and stepped very slowly and cautiously towards it.

Rustle, thump! rustle, thump! rustle, thump! with the rhythm of harmonious voices.

Raynal was now at the screen, and quietly put his head round it, and his hand upon it.

No result. What is this? Don't they see him? Why does he not speak to them? He seems transfixed.

Rustle, thump! rustle, thump; accompanied now for a few notes by one voice only, Rose's.

Suddenly there burst a shriek from Josephine, so loud, so fearful, that it made even Raynal stagger back a

Then another scream of terror and anguish from Rose. Then a fainter cry, and the heavy helpless fall of a

Raynal sprang forward whirling the screen to the earth in terrible agitation, and Edouard bounded over it as it

fell at his feet. He did not take a second step. The scene that caught his eye stupefied and paralyzed him in

To return for a moment to Rose. She parted from Edouard, and went in at the front door: but the next moment

she opened it softly and watched her lover unseen. "Dear Edouard!" she murmured: and then she thought,

"how sad it is that I must deceive him, even tonight: must make up an excuse to get him from me, when we

were so happy together. Ah! he little knows how I shall welcome our weddingday. When once I can see my

poor martyr on the road to peace and content under the good doctor's care. And oh! the happiness of having

no more secrets from him I love! Dear Edouard! when once we are married, I never, never, will have a secret

As a comment on these words she now stepped cautiously out, and peered in every direction.

Rose returned into the house and bolted the door inside. She went up to the tapestried room, and found the

doctor in the act of wishing Josephine goodnight. The baroness, fatigued a little by her walk, had mounted

no higher than her own bedroom, which was on the first floor just under the tapestried room. Rose followed

the doctor out. "Dear friend, one word. Josephine talked of telling Raynal. You have not encouraged her to do

"Still less on his return. Doctor, you don't know that man. Josephine does not know him. But I do. He would

kill her if he knew. He would kill her that minute. He would not wait: he would not listen to excuses: he is a

man of iron. Or if he spared her he would kill Camille: and that would destroy her by the cruellest of all

deaths! My friend, I am a wicked, miserable girl. I am the cause of all this misery!"

She then told Aubertin all about the anonymous letter, and what Raynal had said to her in consequence.

"He never would have married her had he known she loved another. He asked me was it so. I told him a

falsehood. At least I equivocated, and to equivocate with one so loyal and simple was to deceive him. I am

the only sinner: that sweet angel is the only sufferer. Is this the justice of Heaven? Doctor, my remorse is

great. No one knows what I feel when I look at my work. Edouard thinks I love her so much better than I do

him. He is wrong: it is not love only, it is pity: it is remorse for the sorrow I have brought on her, and the

The highspirited girl was greatly agitated: and Aubertin, though he did not acquit her of all blame, soothed

"We must not always judge by results," said he. "Things turned unfortunately. You did for the best. I forgive

you for one. That is, I will forgive you if you promise not to act again without my advice."

"And, above all, no imprudence about that child. In three little weeks they will be together without risk of

Rose's blood turned cold. "Dear friend," she stammered, "I quite agree with you."

"You are a good girl," said Aubertin. "You have a will of your own. But you can submit to age and

"I leave for Paris at six in the morning," he said. "I will not try your patience or hers unnecessarily. Perhaps it

The moment Rose was alone, she sat down and sighed bitterly. "There is no end to it," she sobbed

despairingly. "It is like a spider's web: every struggle to be free but multiplies the fine yet irresistible thread

that seems to bind me. And tonight I thought to be so happy; instead of that, he has left me scarce the heart

She went back to the room, opened a window, and put out a white handkerchief, then closed the window

"No, love. What are you doing? I want to talk to you. Why did you say promise? and what did you mean by

"Not just yet," said Rose; she then glided into the corridor, and passed her mother's room and the doctor's,

and listened to see if all was quiet. While she was gone Josephine opened her door; but not seeing Rose in the

Rose returned softly, and sat down with her head in her hand, in a calm attitude belied by her glancing eye,

Presently she raised her head quickly; a sound had reached her ear, a sound so slight that none but a

highstrung ear could have caught it. It was like a mouse giving a single scratch against a stone wall.

On this a clearer sound was heard, as of a person scratching wood with the fingernail. Rose darted to the

side of the room, pressed against the wall, and at the same time put her other hand against the rim of one of

the panels and pushed it laterally; it yielded, and at the opening stood Jacintha in her cloak and bonnet.

"No, but I will." And Rose glided to the door and locked it. Then she put the screen up between Josephine's

room and the open panel: then she and Jacintha were wonderfully busy on the other side the screen, but

presently Rose said, "This is imprudent; you must go down to the foot of the stairs and wait till I call you."

Jacintha pleaded hard against this arrangement, and represented that there was no earthly chance of any one

Jacintha retired to keep watch as she was bid. Rose went to Josephine's room, and threw her arms round her

neck and kissed her vehemently. Josephine returned her embrace, then held her out at arm's length and looked

"Not yet. I invite you to take a little walk with me first. Come!" and she led the way slowly, looking back

"You almost frighten me," said Josephine; "it is not like you to be all joy when I am sad. Three whole weeks

"That is it. Why are you sad? because the doctor would not let you go to Frejus. And why am I not sad?

because I had already thought of a way to let you see Edouard without going so far."

"This waycome!" and she smiled and beckoned with her finger, while Josephine followed like one under a

spell, her bosom heaving, her eye glancing on every side, hoping some strange joy, yet scarce daring to hope.

Rose drew back the screen, and there was a sweet little berceau that had once been Josephine's own, and in it,

sunk deep in snowwhite lawn, was a sleeping child, that lay there looking as a rose might look could it fall

At sight of it Josephine uttered a little cry, not loud but deep ay, a cry to bring tears into the eye of the

hearer, and she stood trembling from head to foot, her hands clasped, and her eye fascinated and fixed on the

"My child under this roof! What have you done?" but her eye, fascinated and fixed, never left the cradle.

"Oh, if anybody should come?" But her eye never stirred an inch from the cradle.

"No, no, no! the door is locked. Jacintha watches below; there is no dan Ah, oh, poor sister!"

For, as Rose was speaking, the young mother sprang silently upon her child. You would have thought she

was going to kill him; her head reared itself again and again like a crested snake's, and again and again and

again and again plunged down upon the child, and she kissed his little body from head to foot with soft

violence, and murmured, through her streaming tears, "My child! my darling! my angel! oh, my poor boy!

I will ask my female readers of every degree to tell their brothers and husbands all the young noble did: how

she sat on the floor, and had her child on her bosom; how she smiled over it through her tears; how she purred

over it; how she, the stately one, lisped and prattled over it; and how life came pouring into her heart from it.

Before she had had it in her arms five minutes, her pale cheek was as red as a rose, and her eyes brighter than

"Bless you, Rose! bless you! bless you! in one moment you have made me forget all I ever suffered in my

"There is a cold draught," cried she presently, with maternal anxiety; "close the panel, Rose."

"No, dear; or I could not call to Jacintha, or she to me; but I will shift the screen round between him and the

Then Rose sat on the floor too, and Josephine put her boy on aunt's lap, and took a distant view of him. But

she could not bear so vast a separation long. She must have him to her bosom again.

Presently my lord, finding himself hugged, opened his eyes, and, as a natural consequence, his mouth.

"Oh, that will never do," cried Rose, and they put him back in the cradle with all expedition, and began to

rock it. Young master was not to be altogether appeased even by that. So Rose began singing an

Josephine sang with her, and, singing, watched with a smile her boy drop off by degrees to sleep under the

gentle motion and the lulling song. They sang and rocked till the lids came creeping down, and hid the great

blue eyes; but still they sang and rocked, lulling the boy, and gladdening their own hearts; for the quaint old

Breton ditty was tunable as the lark that carols over the green wheat in April; and the words so simple and

motherly, that a nation had taken them to heart. Such songs bind ages together and make the lofty and the low

akin by the great ties of music and the heart. Many a Breton peasant's bosom in the olden time had gushed

over her sleeping boy as the young dame's of Beaurepaire gushed nowin this quaint, tuneful lullaby.

Now, as they kneeled over the cradle, one on each side, and rocked it, and sang that ancient chant, Josephine,

There was the face of a man set close against the side of the screen, and peeping and peering out of the

gloom. The light of her candle fell full on this face; it glared at her, set pale, wonder struck, and vivid in the

At first she was quite stupefied, and looked at it with soul and senses benumbed. Then she trembled, and put

her hand to her eyes; for she thought it a phantom or a delusion of the mind. No: there it glared still. Then she

trembled violently, and held out her left hand, the fingers working convulsively, to Rose, who was still

But, at the same moment, the mouth of this face suddenly opened in a longdrawn breath. At this, Josephine

uttered a violent shriek, and sprang to her feet, with her right hand quivering and pointing at that pale face set

Rose started up, and, wheeling her head round, saw Raynal's gloomy face looking over her shoulder. She fell

screaming upon her knees, and, almost out of her senses, began to pray wildly and piteously for mercy.

Josephine uttered one more cry, but this was the faint cry of nature, sinking under the shock of terror. She

swooned dead away, and fell senseless on the floor ere Raynal could debarrass himself of the screen, and get

This, then, was the scene that met Edouard's eyes. His affianced bride on her knees, white as a ghost,

trembling, and screaming, rather than crying, for mercy. And Raynal standing over his wife, showing by the

working of his iron features that he doubted whether she was worthy he should raise her.

One would have thought nothing could add to the terror of this scene. Yet it was added to. The baroness rang

her bell violently in the room below. She had heard Josephine's scream and fall.

At the ringing of this shrill bell Rose shuddered like a maniac, and grovelled on her knees to Raynal, and

"But do not tell our mother. Oh, if you are a man! do not! do not! Show us some pity. We are but women.

"Speak out then," groaned Raynal. "What does this mean? Why has my wife swooned at sight of

"Whose?" stammered Rose. Till he said that, she never thought there COULD be a doubt whose child.

"Oh, my God!" cried the poor girl, and her scared eyes glanced every way like some wild creature looking for

Edouard, seeing her hesitation, came down on her other side. "Whose is the child, Rose?" said he sternly.

The men were excited to fury by Rose's hesitation; they each seized an arm, and tore her screaming with fear

at their violence, from her knees up to her feet between them with a single gesture.

"You hurt me!" said she bitterly to Edouard, and she left crying and was terribly calm and sullen all in a

"Whose is the child?" roared Edouard and Raynal, in one raging breath. "Whose is the child?"

The two arms that gripped Rose's arms were paralyzed, and dropped off them; and there was silence.

Then first the thought of all she had done with those three words began to rise and grow and surge over her.

Now a mist began to spread over her eyes, and in it she saw indistinctly the figure of Raynal darting to her

She dared not look round on the other side. She heard feet stagger on the floor. She heard a groan, too; but

With nerves strung to frenzy, and quivering ears, that magnified every sound, she waited for a reproach, a

curse; either would have been some little relief. But no! a silence far more terrible.

Then a step wavered across the room. Her soul was in her ear. She could hear and feel the step totter, and it

shook her as it went. All sounds were trebled to her. Then it struck on the stone step of the staircase, not like

a step, but a knell; another step, another and another; down to the very bottom. Each slow step made her head

At last she heard no more. Then a scream of anguish and recall rose to her lips. She fought it down, for

Josephine and Raynal. Edouard was gone. She had but her sister now, the sister she loved better than herself;

the sister to save whose life and honor she had this moment sacrificed her own, and all a woman lives for.

She turned, with a wild cry of love and pity, to that sister's side to help her; and when she kneeled down

beside her, an iron arm was promptly thrust out between the beloved one and her.

She looked at him in piteous amazement at his ingratitude. "It is well," said she. "It is just. I deserve this from

She said no more, but drooped gently down beside the cradle, and hid her forehead in the clothes beside the

Then honest Raynal began to be sorry for her, in spite of himself. But there was no time for this. Josephine

stirred; and, at the same moment, a violent knocking came at the door of the apartment, and the new servant's

voice, crying, "Ladies, for Heaven's sake, what is the matter? The baroness heard a fallshe is getting

Raynal was going to answer, but Rose, who had started up at the knocking, put her hand in a moment right

before his mouth, and ran to the door. "There is nothing the matter; tell mamma I am coming down to her

directly." She flew back to Raynal in an excitement little short of frenzy. "Help me carry her into her own

room," cried she imperiously. Raynal obeyed by instinct; for the fiery girl spoke like a general, giving the

word of command, with the enemy in front. He carried the true culprit in his arms, and laid her gently on her

Raynal went to the cradle. "Ah! my poor girl," said he, as he lifted it in his arms, "this is a sorry business; to

"Colonel Raynal," said Rose, "do not insult a poor, despairing girl. C'est lache."

"Take it down the steps, and give it to Jacintha. Stay, here is a candle; I go to tell mamma you are come; and,

Colonel Raynal, I never injured YOU: if you tell my mother you will stab her to the heart, and me, and may

"Enough!" said Raynal, sternly. "Do you take me for a babbling girl? I love your mother better than you do,

or this brat of yours would not be here. I shall not bring her gray hairs down with sorrow to the grave. I shall

speak of this villany to but one person; and to him I shall talk with this, and not with the idle tongue." And he

Rose darted into Josephine's room, took the key from the inside to the outside, locked the door, put the key in

her pocket, and ran down to her mother's room; her knees trembled under her as she went.

Meantime, Jacintha, sleeping tranquilly, suddenly felt her throat griped, and heard a loud voice ring in her

ear; then she was lifted, and wrenched, and dropped. She found herself lying clear of the steps in the

She uttered shriek upon shriek, and was too frightened to get up. She thought it was supernatural; some old

De Beaurepaire had served her thus for sleeping on her post. A struggle took place between her fidelity and

her superstitious fears. Fidelity conquered. Quaking in every limb, she groped up the staircase for her candle.

Her first impulse was to dart up the stairs, and make sure that no calamity had befallen through her mistimed

drowsiness. But, when she came to try, her dread of the supernatural revived. She could not venture without a

light up those stairs, thronged perhaps with angry spirits. She ran to the kitchen. She found the tinderbox, and

with trembling hands struck a light. She came back shading it with her shaky hands; and, committing her soul

to the care of Heaven, she crept quaking up the stairs. Then she heard voices above, and that restored her

more; she mounted more steadily. Presently she stopped, for a heavy step was coming down. It did not sound

"Jacintha!" said a deep voice, that in this stone cylinder rang like thunder from a tomb.

"Oh! saints and angels save me!" yelled Jacintha; and fell on her knees, and hid her head for security; and

She raised her head by slow degrees, shuddering. A man was holding out a cradle to her; the candle he

She stared at him stupidly, but never moved from her knees, and the candle began to shake violently in her

Then Raynal concluded she was in the plot; but, scorning to reproach a servant, he merely said, "Well, what

do you kneel there for, gaping at me like that? Take this, I tell you, and carry it out of the house."

He shoved the cradle roughly down into her hands, then turned on his heel without a word.

Jacintha collapsed on the stairs, and the cradle beside her, for all the power was driven out of her body; she

She took up the candle, for it was lying burning and guttering on the stairs; scraped up the grease with the

snuffers, and by force of habit tried to polish it clean with a bit of paper that shook between her fingers; she

did not know what she was doing. When she recovered her wits, she took the child out of the cradle, and

wrapped it carefully in her shawl; then went slowly down the stairs; and holding him close to her bosom, with

a furtive eye, and brain confused, and a heart like lead, stole away to the tenantless cottage, where Madame

Meantime, Rose, with quaking heart, had encountered the baroness. She found her pale and agitated, and her

first question was, "What is the matter? what have you been all doing over my head?"

"Darling mother," replied Rose, evasively, "something has happened that will rejoice your heart. Somebody

"In five minutes I will bring him to you. Shall you be dressed? I will ring for the girl to help you."

"Can't you guess, mamma? Oh, the fall was only the screen; they stumbled over it in the dark."

"Colonel Raynal, andand Edouard. I will tell you, mamma, but don't be angry, or even mention it; they

wanted to surprise us. They saw a light burning, and they crept on tiptoe up to the tapestried room, where

"What madness!" cried the baroness, angrily; "and in Josephine's weak state! Such a surprise might have

"Yes, it was foolish, but let it pass, mamma. Don't speak of it, for he is so sorry about it."

Then Rose slipped out, ordered a fire in the salon, and not in the tapestried room, and the next minute was at

her sister's door. There she found Raynal knocking, and asking Josephine how she was.

"Pray leave her to me a moment," said she. "I will bring her down to you. Mamma is waiting for you in the

Raynal went down. Rose unlocked the bedroomdoor, went in, and, to her horror, found Josephine lying on

the floor. She dashed water in her face, and applied every remedy; and at last she came back to life, and its

"Save me, Rose! save mehe is coming to kill meI heard him at the door," and she clung trembling

Then Rose, seeing her terror, was almost glad at the suicidal falsehood she had told. She comforted and

"All is well, my poor coward," she cried; "your fears are all imaginary; another has owned the child, and the

Rose then, feeling by no means sure that Josephine, terrified as she was, would consent to let her sister come

to shame to screen her, told her boldly that Jacintha had owned herself the mother of the child, and that

Raynal's only feeling towards HER was pity, and regret at having so foolishly frightened her, weakened as

she was by illness. "I told him you had been ill, dear. But how came you on the ground?"

"I had come to myself; I was on my knees praying. He tapped. I heard his voice. I remember no more. I must

Rose had hard work to make her believe that her guilt, as she called it, was not known; and even then she

could not prevail on her to come downstairs, until she said, "If you don't, he will come to you." On that

Josephine consented eagerly, and with trembling fingers began to adjust her hair and her dress for the

All this terrible night Rose fought for her sister. She took her downstairs to the salon; she put her on the

sofa; she sat by her and pressed her hand constantly to give her courage. She told the story of the surprise her

own way, before the whole party, including the doctor, to prevent Raynal from being called on to tell it his

way. She laughed at Josephine's absurdity, but excused it on account of her feeble health. In short, she threw

But by the time when the rising sun came faintly in and lighted the haggard party, where the deceived were

happy, the deceivers wretched, the supernatural strength this young girl had shown was almost exhausted.

She felt an hysterical impulse to scream and weep: each minute it became more and more ungovernable.

Then came an unexpected turn. Raynal after a long and tiring talk with his mother, as he called her, looked at

his watch, and in a characteristic way coolly announced his immediate departure, this being the first hint he

Rose and Josephine pressed one another's hands, and had much ado not to utter a loud cry of joy.

Raynal explained that he was the bearer of despatches. "I must be off: not an hour to lose. Don't fret, mother,

Raynal took leave of them all. When it came to Rose's turn, he drew her aside and whispered into her ear,

"She has promised me not to betray me: I made her swear. Spare me now, brother; I will tell you all when

"That is a bargain: now hear ME swear: he shall marry you, or he shall die by my hand."

Rose shuddered, but said nothing, only she thought to herself, "I am forewarned. Never shall you know who

He was no sooner gone than the baroness insisted on knowing what this private communication between him

"Oh," said Rose, "he was only telling me to keep up your courage and Josephine's till he comes back."

This was the last lie the poor entangled wretch had to tell that morning. The next minute the sisters,

exhausted by their terrible struggle, went feebly, with downcast eyes, along the corridor and up the staircase

They went hand in hand. They sank down, dressed as they were, on Josephine's bed, and clung to one another

and trembled together, till their exhausted natures sank into uneasy slumbers, from which each in turn would

wake ever and anon with a convulsive start, and clasp her sister tighter to her breast.

Theirs was a marvellous love. Even a course of deceit had not yet prevailed to separate or chill their sister

bosoms. But still in this deep and wonderful love there were degrees: one went a shade deeper than the other

noway, since last night. Which? why, she who had sacrificed herself for the other, and dared not tell her,

It was the gray of the morning, and foggy, when Raynal, after taking leave, went to the stable for his horse.

At the stabledoor he came upon a man sitting doubled up on the very stones of the yard, with his head on his

knees. The figure lifted his head, and showed him the face of Edouard Riviere, white and ghastly: his hair

lank with the mist, his teeth chattering with cold and misery. The poor wretch had walked frantically all night

round and round the chateau, waiting till Raynal should come out. He told him so.

"But why didn't you?Ah! I see. No! you could not go into the house after that. My poor fellow, there is but

one thing for you to do. Turn your back on her, and forget she ever lived; she is dead to you."

"That is my affair, young man. When I come back from the Rhine, she will tell me who her seducer is. She

"And don't you see through that?" said Edouard, gnashing his teeth; "that is only to gain time: she will never

He groaned and was silent a moment, then laying his hand on Raynal's arm said grimly, "Thank Heaven, we

"I mean that, while you were fighting for France, your house was turned into a hospital for wounded

"Well, this Dujardin was housed by you, was nursed by your wife and all the family; and in return has

"I can hardly believe that. Camille Dujardin was always a man of honor, and a good soldier."

"Colonel, there has been no man near the place but this Dujardin. I tell you it is he. Don't make me tear my

bleeding heart out: must I tell you how often I caught them together, how I suspected, and how she gulled

me? blind fool that I was, to believe a woman's words before my own eyes. I swear to you he is the villain;

"I know it. That is why I waited here all through this night of misery. Yes, you are in luck. But you will send

me a line when you have killed him; will you not? Then I shall know joy again. Should he escape you, he

"Young man," said Raynal, with dignity, "this rage is unmanly. Besides, we have not heard his side of the

story. He is a good soldier; perhaps he is not all to blame: or perhaps passion has betrayed him into a sin that

his conscience and honor disapprove: if so, he must not die. You think only of your wrong: it is natural: but I

am the girl's brother; guardian of her honor and my own. His life is precious as gold. I shall make him marry

"You leave one thing out of the calculation, monsieur," said Edouard, trembling with anger, "that I will kill

"YOU leave one thing out of the calculation: that you will first have to cross swords, at the altar, with me."

"So be it. I will not draw on my old commandant. I could not; but be sure I will catch him and her alone some

"As you please," said Raynal, coolly. "That is all fair, as you have been wronged. I shall make her an honest

wife, and then you may make her an honest widow. (This is what they call LOVE, and sneer at me for

keeping clear of it.) But neither he nor you shall keep MY SISTER what she is now, a ," and he used a

Edouard winced and groaned. "Oh! don't call her by such a name. There is some mystery. She loved me once.

"Now you deceive yourself," said Raynal. "I never saw a girl that could take her own part better than she can;

she is not like her sister at all in character. Not that I excuse him; it was a dishonorable act, an ungrateful act

"Now listen to me: in four days I shall stand before him. I shall not go into a pet like you; I am in earnest. I

shall just say to him, 'Dujardin, I know all!' Then if he is guilty his face will show it directly. Then I shall say,

"You are speaking of a man you don't know. He WILL marry her and repair the wrong he has done."

"Why should he refuse? The girl is not ugly nor old, and if she has done a folly, he was her partner in it."

Raynal ground his teeth. "Refuse? If he does, I'll run my sword through his carcass then and there, and the

The French army lay before a fortified place near the Rhine, which we will call Philipsburg.

This army knew Bonaparte by report only; it was commanded by generals of the old school.

Philipsburg was defended on three sides by the nature of the ground; but on the side that faced the French line

of march there was only a zigzag wall, pierced, and a low tower or two at each of the salient angles.

There were evidences of a tardy attempt to improve the defences. In particular there was a large round

bastion, about three times the height of the wall; but the masonry was new, and the very embrasures were not

Young blood was for assaulting these equivocal fortifications at the end of the day's march that brought the

French advanced guard in sight of the place; but the old generals would not hear of it; the soldiers' lives must

not be flung away assaulting a place that could be reduced in twentyone days with mathematical certainty.

For at this epoch a siege was looked on as a process with a certain result, the only problem was in how many

days would the place be taken; and even this they used to settle to a day or two on paper by arithmetic; so

many feet of wall, and so many guns on the one side; so many guns, so many men, and such and such a soil

to cut the trenches in on the other: result, two figures varying from fourteen to forty. These two figures

For all that, siege arithmetic, right in general, has often been terribly disturbed by one little incident, that

occurs from time to time; viz., Genius INside. And, indeed, this is one of the sins of genius; it goes and puts

out calculations that have stood the brunt of years. Archimedes and Todleben were, no doubt, clever men in

their way and good citizens, yet one characteristic of delicate men's minds they lackedveneration; they

showed a sad disrespect for the wisdom of the ancients, deranged the calculations which so much learning

and patient thought had hallowed, disturbed the minds of whitehaired veterans, took sieges out of the grasp

Our generals then sat down at fourteen hundred yards' distance, and planned the trenches artistically, and

directed them to be cut at artful angles, and so creep nearer and nearer the devoted town. Then the Prussians,

whose hearts had been in their shoes at first sight of the French shakos, plucked up, and turned not the

garrison only but the population of the town into engineers and masons. Their fortifications grew almost as

The first day of the siege, a young but distinguished brigadier in the French army rode to the quarters of

General Raimbaut, who commanded his division, and was his personal friend, and respectfully but firmly

entreated the general to represent to the commanderinchief the propriety of assaulting that new bastion

before it should become dangerous. "My brigade shall carry it in fifteen minutes, general," said he.

"What! cross all that open under fire? Onehalf your brigade would never reach the bastion."

General Raimbaut refused to forward the young colonel's proposal to headquarters. "I will not subject you to

The young colonel lingered. He said, respectfully, "One question, general, when that bastion cuts its teeth

"Certainly; it will always be easier to take it from the sap than to cross the open under fire to it, and take it.

Come, colonel, to your trenches; and if your friend should cut its teeth, you shall have a battery in your attack

The young colonel did not echo his chief's humor; he saluted gravely, and returned to the trenches.

The next morning three fresh tiers of embrasures grinned one above another at the besiegers. The besieged

had been up all night, and not idle. In half these apertures black muzzles showed themselves.

The trenches were within four hundred yards of the enemy's guns, and it was hot work in them. The enemy

had three tiers of guns in the round bastion, and on the top they had got a long 48pounder, which they

worked with a swivel joint, or the like, and threw a great roaring shot into any part of the French lines.

As to the commanderinchief and his generals, they were dotted about a long way in the rear, and no shot

came as far as them; but in the trenches the men began now to fall fast, especially on the left attack, which

faced the round bastion. Our young colonel had got his heavy battery, and every now and then he would

divert the general efforts of the bastion, and compel it to concentrate its attention on him, by pounding away

at it till it was all in sore places. But he meant it worse mischief than that. Still, as heretofore, regarding it as

the key to Philipsburg, he had got a large force of engineers at work driving a mine towards it, and to this he

trusted more than to breaching it; for the bigger holes he made in it by day were all stopped at night by the

This colonel was not a favorite in the division to which his brigade belonged. He was a good soldier, but a

dull companion. He was also accused of hauteur and of an unsoldierly reserve with his brother officers.

Some loosetongued ones even called him a milksop, because he was constantly seen conversing with the

Others said, "No, hang it, he is not a milksop: he is a tried soldier: he is a sulky beggar all the same." Those

under his immediate command were divided in opinion about him. There was something about him they

could not understand. Why was his sallow face so stern, so sad? and why with all that was his voice so

gentle? somehow the few words that did fall from his mouth were prized. One old soldier used to say, "I

would rather have a word from our brigadier than from the commanderinchief." Others thought he must at

some part of his career have pillaged a church, taken the altarpiece, and sold it to a picturedealer in Paris,

or whipped the earrings out of the Madonna's ears, or admitted the female enemy to quarter upon ungenerous

conditions: this, or some such crime to which we poor soldiers are liable: and now was committing the

mistake of remording himself about it. "Always alongside the chaplain, you see!"

This cold and silent man had won the heart of the most talkative sergeant in the French army. Sergeant La

Croix protested with many oaths that all the best generals of the day had commanded him in turn, and that his

present colonel was the first that had succeeded in inspiring him with unlimited confidence. "He knows every

point of warthis one," said La Croix, "I heard him beg and pray for leave to storm this thundering bastion

before it was armed: but no, the old muffs would be wiser than our colonel. So now here we are kept at bay

by a place that Julius Caesar and Cannibal wouldn't have made two bites at apiece; no more would I if I was

the old boy out there behind the hill." In such terms do sergeants denote commandersinchiefat a

distance. A voluble sergeant has more influence with the men than the minister of war is perhaps aware: on

the whole, the 24th brigade would have followed its gloomy colonel to grim death and a foot farther. One

thing gave these men a touch of superstitious reverence for their commander. He seemed to them free from

physical weakness. He never SAT DOWN to dinner, and seemed never to sleep. At no hour of the day or

Very annoying. But, after awhile, it led to keen watchfulness: the more so that the sad and gloomy colonel

showed by his manner he appreciated it. Indeed, one night he even opened his marble jaws, and told Sergeant

La Croix that a watchful sentry was an important soldier, not to his brigade only, but to the whole army.

Judge whether the maxim and the implied encomium did not circulate next morning, with additions.

Sixteenth day of the siege. The round bastion opened fire at eight o'clock, not on the opposing battery, but on

the right of the French attack. Its advanced position enabled a portion of its guns to rake these trenches

slantwise: and depressing its guns it made the round shot strike the ground first and ricochet over.

On this our colonel opened on them with all his guns: one of these he served himself. Among his other

warlike accomplishments, he was a wonderful shot with a cannon. He showed them capital practice this

morning: drove two embrasures into one, and knocked about a ton of masonry off the parapet. Then taking

advantage of this, he served two of his guns with grape, and swept the enemy off the top of the bastion, and

kept it clear. He made it so hot they could not work the upper guns. Then they turned the other two tiers all

upon him, and at it both sides went ding, dong, till the guns were too hot to be worked. So then Sergeant La

Croix popped his head up from the battery, and showed the enemy a great white plate. This was meant to

convey to them an invitation to dine with the French army: the other side of the table of course.

To the credit of Prussian intelligence be it recorded, that this pantomimic hint was at once taken and both

The fighting colonel, however, remained in the battery, and kept a detachment of his gunners employed

cooling the guns and repairing the touchholes. He ordered his two cutlets and his glass of water into the

Meantime, the enemy fired a single gun at long intervals, as much as to say, "We had the last word."

Let trenches be cut ever so artfully, there will be a little space exposed here and there at the angles. These

Now the enemy had just got the range of one of these places with their solitary gun, and had already dropped

a couple of shot right on to it. A camp follower with a tray, two cutlets, and a glass of water, came to this

open space just as a puff of white smoke burst from the bastion. Instead of instantly seeking shelter till the

shot had struck, he, in his inexperience, thought the shot must have struck, and all danger be over. He stayed

there mooning instead of pelting under cover: the shot (eighteenpound) struck him right on the breast,

The human fragments lay quiet, ten yards off. But a soldier that was eating his dinner kicked it over, and

jumped up at the side of "Death's Alley" (as it was christened next minute), and danced and yelled with pain.

"What is that?" cried Sergeant La Croix. "What do you laugh at, Private Cadel?" said he sternly, for, though

he was too far in the trench to see, he had heard that horrible sound a soldier knows from every other, the

"Sergeant," said Cadel, respectfully, "I laugh to see Private Dard, that got the wind of the shot, dance and

"The wind of the shot, you rascal!" roared Private Dard: "look here!" and he showed the blood running down

The shot had actually driven a splinter of bone out of the sutler into Dard's temple.

"I am the unluckiest fellow in the army," remonstrated Dard: and he stamped in a circle.

"Seems to me you are only the second unluckiest this time," said a young soldier with his mouth full; and,

with a certain dry humor, he pointed vaguely over his shoulder with the fork towards the corpse.

This want of sympathy and justice irritated Dard. "You cursed fools!" cried he. "He is gone where we must

all gowithout any trouble. But look at me. I am always getting barked. Dogs of Prussians! they pick me out

Some of our heads would never have ached again: but Dard had a good thick skull.

"I'll wrap it up in paper for Jacintha," said he. "Then that will learn her what a poor soldier has to go

Corporal Coriolanus Gand, a bit of an infidel from Lyons, who sometimes amused himself with the Breton's

superstition, told him with a grave face, that the splinter belonged not to him, but to the sutler, and, though so

"If you keep that, it will be a bone of contention between you two," said he; "especially at midnight. HE

"There, take it away!" said the Breton hastily, "and bury it with the poor fellow."

Sergeant La Croix presented himself before the colonel with a rueful face and saluted him and said, "Colonel,

La Croix went for it himself, and on his return found Cadel sitting on one side of Death's Alley, and Dard

with his head bound up on the other. They had got a bottle which each put up in turn wherever he fancied the

next round shot would strike, and they were betting their afternoon rations which would get the Prussians to

"Time is up for playing marbles," said he. "Be off, and play at duty," and he bundled them into the battery.

It was an hour past midnight: a cloudy night. The moon was up, but seen only by fitful gleams. A calm,

An officer going his rounds found the said sentinel flat instead of vertical. He stirred him with his scabbard,

"Colonel," said Dard, all in a flutter, "I was taking a squint at them, because I saw something. The beggars are

"Good! Now reflect. If you persist in this statement, I turn out the brigade on your information."

"I'll stand the fire of a corporal's guard at break of day if I make a mistake now," said Dard.

The colonel glided away, called his captain and first lieutenants, and said two words in each ear, that made

Dard, marching to an fro, musket on shoulder, found himself suddenly surrounded by grim, silent, but deadly

eager soldiers, that came pouring like bees into the open space behind the battery. The officers came round

"Attend to two things," said he to the captains. "Don't fire till they are within ten yards: and don't follow them

The men were then told off by companies, some to the battery, some to the trenches, some were kept on each

They were not all of them in position, when those behind the parapet saw, as it were, something deepen the

gloom of night, some fourscore yards to the front: it was like a line of black ink suddenly drawn upon a sheet

It seems quite stationary. The novices wondered what it was. The veterans muttered"Three deep."

Though it looked stationary, it got blacker and blacker. The soldiers of the 24th brigade griped their muskets

All of a sudden, a loud yell on the right of the brigade, two or three single shots from the trenches in that

direction, followed by a volley, the cries of wounded men, and the fierce hurrahs of an attacking party.

Our colonel knew too well those sounds: the next parallel had been surprised, and the Prussian bayonet was

Disguise was now impossible. At the first shot, a guttural voice in front of Dujardin's men was heard to give a

word of command. There was a sharp rattle and in a moment the thick black line was tipped with glittering

A roar and a rush, and the Prussian line three deep came furiously like a huge steelpointed wave, at the

French lines. A tremendous wave of fire rushed out to meet that wave of steel: a crash of two hundred

muskets, and all was still. Then you could see through the black steeltipped line in a hundred frightful gaps,

and the ground sparkled with bayonets and the air rang with the cries of the wounded.

A tremendous cheer from the brigade, and the colonel charged at the head of his column, out by Death's

The broken wall was melting away into the night. The colonel wheeled his men to the right: one company,

The other attack had been only too successful. They shot the sentries, and bayoneted many of the soldiers in

their tents: others escaped by running to the rear, and some into the next parallel.

Several, half dressed, snatched up their muskets, killed one Prussian, and fell riddled like sieves.

A gallant officer got a company together into the place of arms and formed in line.

Half the Prussian force went at them, the rest swept the trenches: the French company delivered a deadly

volley, and the next moment clash the two forces crossed bayonets, and a silent deadly stabbing match was

played: the final result of which was inevitable. The Prussians were five to one. The gallant officer and the

poor fellows who did their duty so stoutly, had no thought left but to die hard, when suddenly a roaring cheer

seemed to come from the rear rank of the enemy. "France! France!" Half the 24th brigade came leaping and

swarming over the trenches in the Prussian rear. The Prussians wavered. "France!" cried the little party that

were being overpowered, and charged in their turn with such fury that in two seconds the two French corps

went through the enemy's centre like paper, and their very bayonets clashed together in more than one

Broken thus in two fragments the Prussian corps ceased to exist as a military force. The men fled each his

own way back to the fort, and many flung away their muskets, for French soldiers were swarming in from all

"They are firing on my brigade," said our colonel. "Who has led his company there against my orders?

Captain Neville, into the battery, and fire twenty rounds at the bastion! Aim at the flashes from their middle

The battery opened with all its guns on the bastion. The right attack followed suit. The town answered, and a

furious cannonade roared and blazed all down both lines till daybreak. Hell seemed broken loose.

Captain Jullien had followed the flying foe: but could not come up with them: and, as the enemy had

prepared for every contingency, the fatal bastion, after first throwing a rocket or two to discover their

position, poured showers of grape into them, killed many, and would have killed more but that Captain

Neville and his gunners happened by mere accident to dismount one gun and to kill a couple of gunners at the

others. This gave the remains of the company time to disperse and run back. When the men were mustered,

Captain Jullien and twentyfive of his company did not answer to their names. At daybreak they were visible

A flag of truce came from the fort: the dead were removed on both sides and buried. Some Prussian officers

strolled into the French lines. Civilities and cigars exchanged: "Bon jour," "Gooten daeg:" then at it again,

At twelve o'clock the besieged had got a man on horseback, on top of a hill, with colored flags in his hand,

"You will see," said La Croix, affecting mystery; he knew no more than the other.

Presently off went Long Tom on the top of the bastion, and the shot came roaring over the heads of the

Ten seconds had scarcely elapsed when a tremendous explosion took place on the French right. Long Tom

was throwing redhot shot; one had fallen on a powder wagon, and blown it to pieces, and killed two poor

fellows and a horse, and turned an artillery man at some distance into a seeming nigger, but did him no great

harm; only took him three days to get the powder out of his clothes with pipe clay, and off his face with raw

When the tumbril exploded, the Prussians could be heard to cheer, and they turned to and fired every iron

They got into a corner where the guns of the battery could not hit them or him, and there was his long muzzle

looking towards the sky, and sending half a hundredweight of iron up into the clouds, and plunging down a

And, at every shot, the man on horseback made signals to let the gunners know where the shot fell.

At last, about four in the afternoon, they threw a fortyeightpound shot slap into the commanderinchief's

"Colonel Dujardin, what are you about, sir? YOUR BASTION has thrown a round shot into the

"If you will do me the honor to step into the battery, I will show you," said the colonel.

Colonel Dujardin took him to the parapet, and began, in a calm, painstaking way, to show him how and why

In the middle of the explanation a melodious sound was heard in the air above them, like a swarm of

"Oh, that? Prussian bullets. Ah, bytheby, it is a compliment to your uniform, monsieur; they take you for

"Your explanation is sufficient, colonel; let us get out of this. Ha, ha! you are a cool hand, colonel, I must

say. But your battery is a warm place enough: I shall report it so at headquarters."

"Captain," said he politely, "you shall not have ridden to my post in vain. Will you lend me your horse for ten

"Do so; oblige me by avoiding that angle; it is exposed, and the enemy have got the range to an inch."

Colonel Dujardin slipped into his quarters; off with his halfdress jacket and his dirty boots, and presently

out he came full fig, glittering brighter than the other, with one French and two foreign orders shining on his

Admitted, after some delay, into the generalissimo's tent, Dujardin found the old gentleman surrounded by his

staff and wroth: nor was the danger to which he had been exposed his sole cause of ire.

The shot had burst through his canvas, struck a table on which was a large inkstand, and had squirted the

Now this old gentleman prided himself upon the neatness of his despatches: a blot on his paper darkened his

Colonel Dujardin expressed his profound regret. The commander, however, continued to remonstrate. "I have

a great deal of writing to do," said he, "as you must be aware; and, when I am writing, I expect to be quiet."

Colonel Dujardin assented respectfully to the justice of this. He then explained at full length why he could

not bring a gun in the battery to silence "Long Tom," and quietly asked to be permitted to run a gun out of the

"It is a pointblank distance, and I have a new gun, with which a man ought to be able to hit his own ball at

"I engage not to lose a manexcept him who fires the gun. HE must take his chance."

"Well, colonel, it must be done by volunteers. The men must not be ORDERED out on such a service as

"Volunteers to go out of the trenches!" cried Sergeant La Croix, in a stentorian voice, standing erect as a

"Only twelve allowed to go," said the sergeant; "and I am one," added he, adroitly inserting himself.

A gun was taken down, placed on a carriage, and posted near Death's Alley, but out of the line of fire.

The colonel himself superintended the loading of this gun; and to the surprise of the men had the shot

He then waited quietly a long time till the bastion pitched one of its periodical shots into Death's Alley, but

no sooner had the shot struck, and sent the sand flying past the two lanes of curious noses, than Colonel

Dujardin jumped upon the gun and waved his cocked hat. At this preconcerted signal, his battery opened fire

on the bastion, and the battery to his right opened on the wall that fronted them; and the colonel gave the

word to run the gun out of the trenches. They ran it out into the cloud of smoke their own guns were belching

forth, unseen by the enemy; but they had no sooner twisted it into the line of Long Tom, than the smoke was

Colonel Dujardin and La Croix raised the muzzle to the markhoo, hoo, hoo! ping, ping, ping! came the

Then Colonel Dujardin, fifteen yards from the trenches, in full blazing uniform, showed two armies what one

intrepid soldier can do. He kneeled down and adjusted his gun, just as he would have done in a practising

ground. He had a pot shot to take, and a pot shot he would take. He ignored three hundred muskets that were

levelled at him. He looked along his gun, adjusted it, and readjusted it to a hair's breadth. The enemy's

bullets pattered upon it: still he adjusted it delicately. His men were groaning and tearing their hair inside at

At last it was levelled to his mind, and then his movements were as quick as they had hitherto been slow. In a

moment he stood erect in the halffencing attitude of a gunner, and his linstock at the touchhole: a huge

tongue of flame, a volume of smoke, a roar, and the iron thunderbolt was on its way, and the colonel walked

haughtily but rapidly back to the trenches; for in all this no bravado. He was there to make a shot; not to

Both French and Prussians risked their own lives craning out to see what a colonel in full uniform was doing

under fire from a whole line of forts, and what would be his fate; but when he fired the gun their curiosity left

Tom gave a rear like a wild horse, his protruding muzzle went up skyhigh, then was seen no more, and a

ring of old iron and a clatter of fragments was heard on the top of the bastion. Long Tom was dismounted.

Oh! the roar of laughter and triumph from one end to another of the trenches; and the clapping of forty

thousand hands that went on for full five minutes; then the Prussians, either through a burst of generous

praise for an act so chivalrous and so brilliant, or because they would not be crowed over, clapped their tea

thousand hands as loudly, and thus thundering, heartthrilling salvo of applause answered salvo on both sides

That evening came a courteous and flattering message from the commanderinchief to Colonel Dujardin;

and several officers visited his quarters to look at him; they went back disappointed. The cry was, "What a

The trenches neared the town. Colonel Dujardin's mine was far advanced; the end of the chamber was within

a few yards of the bastion. Of late, the colonel had often visited this mine in person. He seemed a little uneasy

about something in that quarter; but no one knew what: he was a silent man. The third evening, after he

dismounted Long Tom, he received private notice that an order was coming down from the

commanderinchief to assault the bastion. He shrugged his shoulders, but said nothing. That same night the

colonel and one of his lieutenants stole out of the trenches, and by the help of a pitchdark, windy night, got

under the bastion unperceived, and crept round it, and made their observations, and got safe back. About

"Well, colonel, you are to have your way at last. Your bastion is to be stormed this afternoon previous to the

"At the right time, general, not the wrong. In five days I undertake to blow that bastion into the air. To assault

General Raimbaut thought this excess of caution a great piece of perversity in Achilles. They were alone, and

"No, general," was the calm reply. "Not on the same thing. I blew hot upon timorous counsels; I blow cold on

rash ones. General, last night Lieutenant Fleming and I were under that bastion; and all round it."

"Ah! my prudent colonel, I thought we should not talk long without your coming out in your true light. If

"No, general," said Dujardin looking gloomily down; "I enjoy neither that nor anything else. Live or die, it is

all one to me; but to the lives of my soldiers I am not indifferent, and never will be while I live. My apparent

"I suspected something; I went to confute, or confirm that suspicion. I confirmed it."

Rat! tat! tat! tat! tat! tat! tat! was heard a drum. Relieving guard in the mine.

"That comes apropos," said he. "I expect one proof more from that quarter. Sergeant, send me the sentinel

Sergeant La Croix soon came back, as pompous as a hen with one chick, predominating with a grand military

air over a droll figure that chattered with cold, and held its musket in hands clothed in great mittens. Dard.

La Croix marched him up as if he had been a file; halted him like a file, sang out to him as to a file, stentorian

The shivering figure became an upright statue directly, and carried one of his mittens to his forehead. Then,

suddenly recognizing the rank of the grayhaired officer, he was morally shaken, but remained physically

"Yes! general! colonel!" and he levelled his eye dead at the general, as he would a bayonet at a foe, being so

"Are you sure you did not hear particles of earth fall at the end of the trench?"

"Sergeant, I did not miss a word," cried Dard, exulting. He thought he had passed a sort of military college

examination. The sergeant was awestruck and disgusted at his familiarity, speaking to him before the great:

he pushed Private Dard hastily out of the presence, and bundled him into the trenches.

"I think not, general; but the whole bastion is. And we found it had been opened in the rear, and lately half a

"Or to let the men run out in ease of an assault. I have seen from the first an able hand behind that part of the

defences. If we assault the bastion, they will pick off as many of us as they can with their muskets then they

"Colonel, this is serious. Are you prepared to lay this statement before the commanderinchief?"

"I am, and I do so through you, the general of my division. I even beg you to say, as from me, that the assault

General Raimbaut went off to headquarters in some haste, a thorough convert to Colonel Dujardin's opinion.

Meantime the colonel went slowly to his tent. At the mouth of it a corporal, who was also his bodyservant,

"A few minutes' repose, Francois, that is all. Do not let me be disturbed for an hour."

Then had the fools, that took (as fools will do) deep sorrow for sullenness, seen the fiery soldier droop, and

his wan face fall into haggard lines, and his martial figure shrink, and heard his stout heart sigh! He took a

letter from his bosom: it was almost worn to pieces. He had read it a thousand times, yet he read it again. A

"We must bow. We can never be happy together on earth; let us make Heaven our friend. This is still left

"How tender, but how firm," thought Camille. "I might agitate, taunt, grieve her I love, but I could not shake

her. No! God and the saints to my aid! they saved me from a crime I now shudder at. And they have given me

the good chaplain: he prays with me, he weeps for me. His prayers still my beating heart. Yes, poor suffering

angel! I read your will in these tender, but bitter, words: you prefer duty to love. And one day you will forget

me; not yet awhile, but it will be so. It wounds me when I think of it, but I must bow. Your will is sacred. I

Then the soldier that had stood between two armies in a hail of bullets, and fired a mastershot, took a little

book of offices in one hand,the chaplain had given it him,and fixed his eyes upon the pious words, and

clung like a child to the pious words, and kissed his lost wife's letter, and tried hard to be like her he loved:

"France," was his reply. He then asked the sentinel, "Where is the colonel commanding the brigade?"

The sentinel lowered his voice, "Asleep, my officer," said he; for the newcomer carried two epaulets.

"Wake him," said the officer in a tone of a man used to command on a large scale.

Dujardin heard, and did not choose a stranger should think he was asleep in broad day. He came hastily out of

the tent, therefore, with Josephine's letter in his hand, and, in the very act of conveying it to his bosom, found

How unlike a theatrical duel! How smooth and quiet the bright blades are! they glide into contact. They are

polished and slippery, yet they hold each other. So these two men's eyes met, and fastened: neither spoke:

each searched the other's face keenly. Raynal's countenance, prepared as he was for this meeting, was like a

stern statue's. The other's face flushed, and his heart raged and sickened at sight of the man, that, once his

comrade and benefactor, was now possessor of the woman he loved. But the figures of both stood alike

Colonel Raynal saluted Colonel Dujardin ceremoniously. Colonel Dujardin returned the salute in the same

"You thought I was in Egypt," said Raynal with grim significance that caught Dujardin's attention, though he

"Mine?" cried Dujardin, his forehead flushing with mortification and anger. "What, is it not enough that you

"Come, colonel," said the other calmly, "do not be unjust to an old comrade. I take your demibrigade; but

"Was it then to announce to me my promotion you came to my quarters?" and Camille looked with a strange

"It is so important that, command or no command, I should have come further than the Rhine to say it to

Let a man be as bold as a lion, a certain awe still waits upon doubt and mystery; and some of this vague awe

crept over Camille Dujardin at Raynal's mysterious speech, and his grave, quiet, significant manner.

Had he discovered something, and what? For Josephine's sake, more than his own, Camille was on his guard

"What?" said he with a slight sneer, "has it never occurred to you that I MUST have a serious word to say to

you? First, let me put you a question: did they treat you well at my house? at the chateau de Beaurepaire?"

"You met, I trust, all the kindness and care due to a wounded soldier and an officer of merit. It would annoy

Colonel Dujardin writhed inwardly at this view of matters. He could not reply in few words. This made him

His inquisitor waited, but, receiving no reply, went on, "Well, colonel, have you shown the sense of gratitude

we had a right to look for in return? In a word, when you left Beaurepaire, had your conscience nothing to

Dujardin still hesitated. He scarcely knew what to think or what to say. But he thought to himself, "Who has

"Colonel Dujardin, I am the husband of Josephine, the son of Madame de Beaurepaire, and the brother of

"Colonel Raynal, between men of honor, placed as you and I are, few words should pass, for words are idle.

You will never prove to me that I have wronged you: I shall never convince you that I have not. Let us

therefore close this painful interview in the way it is sure to close. I am at your service, at any hour and place

"And pray is that all the answer you can think of?" asked Raynal somewhat scornfully.

"A more sensible, a more honest, and a less boyish one. Who doubts that you can fight, you silly fellow?

haven't I seen you? I want you to show me a much higher sort of courage: the courage to repair a wrong, not

"Why, of course you cannot. And therefore I stand here ready to forgive all that is past; not without a

Camille was now utterly mystified. Raynal continued, "But of course it is upon condition that you consent to

"Only a little common honesty. This is the case: you have seduced a young lady."

"What is the matter? The word is not so bad as the crime, I take it. You have seduced her, and under

circumstances But we won't speak of them, because I am resolved to keep cool. Well, sir, as you said just

now, it's no use crying over spilled milk; you can't unseduce the little fool; so you must marry her."

"Mmmarry her?" and Dujardin flushed all over, and his heart beat, and he stared in Raynal's face.

"Why, what is the matter again? If she has played the fool, it was with you, and no other man: it is not as if

she was depraved. Come, my lad, show a little generosity! Take the consequences of your own actor your

share of itdon't throw it all on the poor feeble woman. If she has loved you too much, you are the man of

This was too much for Camille; that Raynal should come and demand of him to marry his own wife, for so he

understood the proposal. He stared at Raynal in silence ever so long, and even when he spoke it was only to

At this it cost Raynal a considerable effort to restrain his wrath. However, he showed himself worthy of the

office he had undertaken. He contained himself, and submitted to argue the matter. "Why, colonel," said he,

"is it such a misfortune to marry poor Rose? She is young, she is lovely, she has many good qualities, and she

"Rose de Beaurepaire?" said he, putting his hand to his head, as if to see whether his reason was still there.

"Yes, Rose de BeaurepaireRose Dujardin that ought to be, and that is to be, if you please."

Raynal nearly lost his temper at this question, and the cold, contemptuous tone with which it was put; but he

"Why, as to that, she was in no condition to deny she had fallen, poor girl; the evidence was too strong. She

"One question more," said Dujardin, with a face of anguish. "Is it Josis it Madame Raynal's wish I should

"Why, of course," said Raynal, in all sincerity, assuming that naturally enough as a matter of course; "if you

At this Camille turned sick with disgust; then rage and bitterness swelled his heart. A furious impulse seized

him to expose Josephine on the spot. He overcame that, however, and merely said, "She wishes me to marry

Raynal was shocked. "Oh," said he, sorrowfully, "I cannot believe this of you; such heartlessness as this is

"I refuse," said Dujardin, hastily; and to tell the truth, not sorry to inflict some pain on the honest soldier who

"And I," said Raynal, losing his temper, "insist, in the name of my dear Josephine"

"Your honor! you have none. The only question is would you rather marry heror die."

"You are right. They are only in the way of men who carry sabres; and besides the less gossip the better.

Goodby, till five," and the two saluted one another with grim ceremony; and Raynal turned on his heel.

Camille stood transfixed; a fierce, guilty joy throbbed in his heart. His rival had quarrelled with him, had

insulted him, had challenged him. It was not his fault. The sun shone bright now upon his cold despair. An

hour ago life offered nothing. A few hours more, and then joy beyond expression, or an end of all. Death or

Josephine! Then he remembered that this very Josephine wished to marry him to Rose. Then he remembered

Raynal had saved his life. Cold chills crossed his breaking heart. Of all that could happen to him death alone

He stood there so torn with conflicting passions, that he noted neither the passing hours nor the flying bullets.

He was only awakened from his miserable trance by the even tread of soldiers marching towards him; he

looked up and there were several officers coming along the edge of the trench, escorted by a corporal's guard.

He took a step or two to meet them. After the usual salutes, one of the three colonels delivered a large paper,

with a large seal, to Dujardin. He read it out to his captains and lieutenants, who had assembled at sight of the

"Attack by the army tomorrow upon all the lines. Attack of the bastion St. Andre this evening. The 22d, the

24th, and 12th brigades will furnish the contingents; the operation will be conducted by one of the colonels of

"Aha!" sounded a voice like a trombone at the reader's elbow. "I am just in the nick of time. When, colonel,

"There," said Raynal, in a halfwhisper, to Dujardin; "could they choose no hour but that?"

"Do not be uneasy," replied Dujardin, under his breath. He explained aloud"the assault will not take place,

"What of that? half of them are mined. We will take our engineers in with us," said Raynal.

"Such an assault will be a useless massacre," resumed Dujardin. "I reconnoitred the bastion last night, and

saw their preparations for blowing us to the devil; and General Raimbaut, at my request, is even now

presenting my remarks to the commanderinchief, and enforcing them. There will be no assault. In a day or

At this moment Raynal caught sight of a grayhaired officer coming at some distance. "There IS General

Raimbaut," said he. "I will go and pay my respects to him." General Raimbaut shook his hand warmly, and

welcomed him to the army. They were old and warm friends. "And you are come at the right time," said he.

General Raimbaut now joined the group of officers, and entered at once in the business which had brought

him. Addressing himself to Colonel Dujardin, first he informs that officer he had presented his observations

"But," continued General Raimbaut, "they are overruled by imperious circumstances, some of which he did

not reveal; they remain in his own breast. However, on the eve of a general attack, which he cannot postpone,

that bastion must be disarmed, otherwise it would be too fatal to all the storming parties. It is a painful

necessity." He added, "Tell Colonel Dujardin I count greatly on the courage and discipline of his brigade, and

Colonel Dujardin bowed. Then he whispered in the other's ear, "Both will alike be wasted."

The other colonels waved their hats in triumph at the commanderin chief's decision, and Raynal's face

"Well, then, gentlemen," said General Raimbaut, "we begin by settling the contingents to be furnished by

your several brigades. Say, an equal number from each. The sum total shall be settled by Colonel Dujardin,

Colonel Dujardin bowed stiffly and not very graciously. In his heart he despised these old fogies, compounds

"The fewer the better," replied the other solemnly, "since"and then discipline tied his tongue.

"I should prefer three hundred. They have made a back door to the bastion, and the means of flight at hand

will put flight into their heads. They will pick off some of our men as we go at them. When the rest jump in

"I do. I see the whole operation and its result before me, as I see this hand. Three hundred men will do."

"But, general," objected Raynal, "you are not beginning at the beginning. The first thing in these cases is to

"Yes, Raynal, unquestionably; but you must be aware that is a painful and embarrassing part of my duty,

"Ah, bah!" cried Raynal. "He is prejudiced. He has been digging a thundering long mine here, and now you

are going to make his child useless. We none of us like that. But when he gets the colors in his hand, and the

storming column at his back, his misgivings will all go to the wind, and the enemy after them, unless he has

been committing some crime, and is very much changed from what I knew him four years ago."

"Colonel Raynal," said one of the other colonels, politely but firmly, "pray do not assume that Colonel

Dujardin is to lead the column; there are three other claimants. General Raimbaut is to select from us four."

"Yes, gentlemen, and in a service of this kind I would feel grateful to you all if you would relieve me of that

"Gentlemen," said Dujardin, with an imperceptible sneer, "the general means to say this: the operation is so

glorious that he could hardly without partiality assign the command to either of us four claimants. Well, then,

"The general will mark a black cross on one lot, and he who draws it wins the command."

The young colonels prepared their lots with almost boyish eagerness. These fiery spirits were sick to death of

lying and skulking in the trenches. They flung their lots into the hat. After them, who should approach the

hat, lot in hand, but Raynal. Dujardin instantly interfered, and held his arm as he was in the act of dropping in

"Why, you would not take such a pettifogging advantage of an old comrade as that."

"Tell him the day ends at twelve o'clock," said one of the colonels interested by this strange strife.

"Ah!" cried Raynal, triumphantly; "but no," said he, altering his tone, "let us leave that sort of argument to

lawyers. I have come a good many miles to fight with you, general; and now you must decide to pay me this

While the old general hesitated, Camille replied, "Since you take that tone there can be but one answer. You

are too great a credit to the French army for even an apparent slight to be put on you here. The rule, I think,

is, that one of the privates shall hold the hat.Hallo! Private Dard, come heretherehold this hat."

And they began to draw, and, in the act of drawing, a change of manner was first visible in these gay and

And now that the honor and the danger no longer floated vaguely over four heads, but had fixed on one, a

It was first broken by Private Dard saying, with foolish triumph, "And I held the hat for you, colonel."

"Ah, Raynal!" said General Raimbaut, sorrowfully, "it was not worth while to come from Egypt for this."

Raynal made no reply to this. He drew out his watch, and said calmly, he had no time to lose; he must inspect

the detachments he was to command. "Besides," said he, "I have some domestic arrangements to make.

Hitherto on these occasions I was a bachelor, now I am married." General Raimbaut could not help sighing.

Raynal read this aright, and turned to him, "A droll marriage, my old friend; I'll tell you all about it if ever I

have the time. It began with a purchase, general, and ends withwith a bequest, which I might as well write

"And, messieurs," said Raynal, "if I waste time you need not. You can pick me my men from your brigades.

The colonels withdrew on this, and General Raimbaut walked sadly and thoughtfully towards the battery.

This unexpected word and Raynal's gentle appeal touched Dujardin deeply. It was in a broken voice he

Raynal received this reply as a sentence of death, and without another word walked slowly into Dujardin's

Dujardin's generosity was up in arms; he followed Raynal, and said eagerly, "Raynal, for Heaven's sake

Camille winced at this affront, and drew back a moment; but his nobler part prevailed. He seized Raynal by

the wrist. "You shall not affront me, you cannot affront me. You go to certain death I tell you, if you attack

"I know the ground better than you," said Camille. "Besides, who cares for me? I have no friends, no family.

Raynal interrupted him sternly. "You forget, sir, that Rose de Beaurepaire is my sister, when you tell me you

have no tie to life." He added, with wonderful dignity and sobriety, "Allow me to write to my wife, sir; and,

while I write, reflect that you can embitter an old comrade's last moments by persisting in your refusal to

And leaving the other staggered and confused by this sudden blow, he retired into Dujardin's tent, and finding

writing materials on a little table that was there, sat down to pen a line to Josephine.

"A bastion is to be attacked at five. I command. Colonel Dujardin proposed we should draw lots, and I lost.

The service is honorable, but the result may, I fear, give you some pain. My dear wife, it is our fate. I was not

In writing these simple words, Raynal's hard face worked, and his mustache quivered, and once he had to

He who stood there, leaning on his scabbard and watching the writer, saw this, and it stirred all that was great

"Poor Raynal!" thought he, "you were never like that before on going into action. He is loath to die. Ay, and

it is a coward's trick to let him die. I shall have her, but shall I have her esteem? What will the army say?

What will my conscience say? Oh! I feel already it will gnaw my heart to death; the ghost of that brave

fellowonce my dear friend, my rival now, by no fault of hiswill rise between her and me, and reproach

me with my bloody inheritance. The heart never deceives; I feel it now whispering in my ear: 'Skulking

captain, whitelivered soldier, that stand behind a parapet while a better man does your work! you assassinate

the husband, but the rival conquers you.' There, he puts his hand to his eyes. What shall I do?"

"Colonel," said a low voice, and at the same time a hand was laid on his shoulder.

"Come apart, colonel, for Heaven's sake! One word, while he is writing. Ah! that was an unlucky idea of

"I thought of course it was to be managed so that Raynal should not be the one. Between ourselves, what

"The whole division will be disgraced, and forgive me if I say a portion of the discredit will fall on you."

"Take your pencil and write'I authorize Colonel Dujardin to save the honor of the colonels of the second

The general hesitated. He had never seen an order so worded. But at last he took out his pencil and wrote the

On account of the singular ability and courage with which Colonel Dujardin has conducted the operations

against the Bastion St. Andre, a discretionary power is given him at the moment of assault to carry into effect

such measures, as, without interfering with the commanderinchief's order, may sustain his own credit, and

"Now, general, you may leave all to me. I swear to you, Raynal shall not dieshall not lead this assault."

"Your hand, colonel. You are an honor to the French armies. How will you do it?"

"I feel it will, my noble fellow: but, alas! I fear not without risking some valuable life or other, most likely

"Yes; this order gives me a discretionary power. I will hand back the order at your command; but modify it I

will not. Come, sir, you veteran generals have been unjust to me, and listened to me too little all through this

siege, but at last you have honored me. This order is the greatest honor that was ever done me since I wore a

"Say no more! One wordIs there anything on earth I can do for you, my brave soldier?"

"Yes, general. Be so kind as to retire to your quarters; there are reasons why you ought not to be near this

"Well, general, ask the good priest Ambrose, to pray for all those who shall die doing their duty to their

They parted. General Raimbaut looked back more than once at the firm, intrepid figure that stood there

unflinching, on the edge of the grave. But HE never took his eye off Raynal. The next minute the sad letter

was finished, and Raynal walked out of the tent, and confronted the man he had challenged to single combat.

I have mentioned elsewhere that Colonel Dujardin had eyes strangely compounded of battle and love, of the

dove and the hawk. And these, softened by a noble act he meditated, now rested on Raynal with a strange

expression of warmth and goodness. This strange gaze struck Raynal, so far at least as this; he saw it was no

hostile eye. He was glad of that, for his own heart was calmed and softened by the solemn prospect before

"We, too, have a little account to settle before I order out the men," said he, calmly, "and I can't give you a

"Our quarrel is at an end. When duty sounds the recall, a soldier's heart leaves private feuds. See! I come to

you without anger and illwill. Just now my voice was loud, my manner, I dare say, offensive, and menacing

even, and that always tempts a brave fellow like you to resist. But now, you see, I am harmless as a woman.

We are alone. Humbug to the winds! I know that you are the only man in this army fit to command a

division. I know that when you say the assault of that bastion is death, death it is. To the point then; now that

my manner is no longer irritating, now that I am going to die, Camille Dujardin, my old comrade, have you

"Aha! did not I always say he was a good fellow? Clench the nail; give me your honor."

"You take a load off me; may Heaven reward you. In one hour those poor women, whose support I had

promised to be, will lose their protector; but I give them another in you. We shall not leave that family in

"Ah," said Raynal, "what a fool I was! That is the first thing I ought to have told you. Poor little fellow! I

surprised him in his cradle; his mother and Josephine were rocking him, and singing over him. Oh! it was a

scene, I can tell you. My poor wife had been ill for some time, and was so weakened by it, that I frightened

her into a fit, stealing a march on her that way. She fainted away. Perhaps it is as well she did; for II did

not know what to think; it looked ugly; but while she lay at our feet insensible, I forced the truth from Rose;

While Raynal told him this strange story, Camille turned hot and cold. First came a thrill of glowing joy; he

had some clew to all this: he was a father; that child was Josephine's and his; the next moment he froze

within. So Josephine had not only gulled her husband, but him, too; she had refused him the sad consolation

of knowing he had a child. Cruelty, calculation, and baseness unexampled! Here was a creature who could

sacrifice anything and anybody to her comfort, to the peace and sordid smoothness of her domestic life. She

His heart, in one moment, turned against her like a stone. A musketbullet through the body does not turn life

to death quicker than Raynal turned his rival's love to despair and scorn: that love which neither wounds,

"No matter," said Camille; "only I esteem YOU, Raynal. You are truth; you are a man, and deserve a better

"Don't say that," replied Raynal, quite misunderstanding him. "It is a soldier's end: I never desired nor hoped

a better: only, of course, I feel sad. You are a happy fellow, to have a child and to live to see it, and her you

"Watch over all those poor women, comrade, and sometimes speak to them of me. It is foolish, but we like to

"Yes! but do not let us speak of that. Raynal, you and I were lieutenants together; do you remember saving

"Then promise me, if you should live, to remember not our quarrel of today, nor anything; but only those

They wrung one another's hands, and turned away and hid their faces from each other, for their eyes were

"This won't do, comrade, I must go. I shall attack from your position. So I shall go down the line, and bring

the men up. Meantime, pick me your detachment. Give me a good spice of veterans. I shall get one word with

The moment Raynal was gone, Camille beckoned a lieutenant to him, and ordered half the brigade to form in

His eye fell upon private Dard, as luck would have it. "Come here," said he. Dard came and saluted.

He wrote a few lines in pencil, folded them, and Dard went off with them, little dreaming that the colonel of

his brigade was taking the trouble to save his life, because he came from Beaurepaire. Colonel Dujardin then

went into his tent, and closed the aperture, and took the good book the priest had given him, and prayed

Then he sat down, his head in his hands, and thought of his child, and how hard it was he must die and never

see him. Then he lighted a candle, and sealed up his orders of valor, and wrote a line, begging that they might

be sent to his sister. He also sealed up his purse, and left a memorandum that the contents should be given to

Then he took out Josephine's letter. "Poor coward," he said, "let me not be unkind. See, I burn your letter, lest

it should be found, and disturb the peace you prize so highly. I, too, shall soon be at peace." He lighted the

letter, and dropped it on the ground: it burned slowly away. He eyed it, despairingly. "Ay," said he, "you

perish, last record of an unhappy love: and even so pass away my life; my hopes of glory, and my dreams of

He put his white handkerchief to his eyes. Josephine had given it him. He cried a little.

When he had done crying, he put his white handkerchief in his bosom, and the whole man was transformed

beyond language to express. Powder does not change more when it catches fire. He rose that moment and

went like a flash of lightning out of the tent. The next, he came down between the lines of the strong column

There was a dead silence, for the bare sight of that erect and inspired figure made the men's bosoms thrill

with the certainty of great deeds to come: the light of battle was in his eye. No longer the moody colonel, but

Colonel Dujardin walked quickly down between the two lines, looking with his fiery eye into the men's eyes

on his right. Then he came back on the other side, and, as he went, he lighted those men's eyes with his own.

"The work to us!" he cried in a voice like a clarion (it fired the hearts as his eye had fired the eyes)"The

triumph to strangers! Our fatigues and our losses have not gained the brigade the honor of going out at those

"What! shall the colors of another brigade and not ours fly from that bastion this afternoon?"

"Ah! you are of my mind. Attention! the attack is fixed for five o'clock. Suppose you and I were to carry the

bastion ten minutes before the colonel from Egypt can bring his men upon the ground."

At this there was a fierce burst of joy and laughter; the strange laughter of veterans and born invincibles.

Then a yell of exulting assent, accompanied by the thunder of impatient drums, and the rattle of fixing

"Level the guns at the top tier. Fire at my signal, and keep firing over our heads, till you see our colors on the

He then darted to the head of the column, which instantly formed behind him in the centre of Death's Alley.

They were instantly brought him: his left hand shook them free in the afternoon sun.

A deep murmur of joy rolled out from the old hands at the now unwonted sight. Out flashed the colonel's

Bang! bang! bang! bang! went his cannon, and the smoke rolled over the trenches. At the same moment up

They went so swiftly out of the trenches that they were not seen through their own smoke until they had run

some sixty yards. As soon as they were seen, coming on like devils through their own smoke, two thousand

muskets were levelled at them from the Prussian line. It was not a rattle of small armsit was a crash, and

the men fell fast: but in a moment they were seen to spread out like a fan, and to offer less mark, and when

the fan closed again, it half encircled the bastion. It was a French attack: part swarmed at it in front like bees,

part swept round the glacis and flanked it. They were seen to fall in numbers, shot down from the embrasures.

But the living took the place of the dead: and the fight ranged evenly there. Where are the colors? Towards

the rear there. The colonel and a hundred men are fighting hand to hand with the Prussians, who have charged

out at the back doors of the bastion. Success there, and the bastion must fallboth sides know this.

The colors disappeared. There was a groan from the French lines. The colors reappeared, and close under the

And now in front the attack was so hot, that often the Prussian gunners were seen to jump down, driven from

their posts; and the next moment a fierce hurrah from the rear told that the French had won some great

advantage there. The fire slackening told a similar tale and presently down came the Prussian flagstaff. That

might be an accident. A few moments of thirsting expectation, and up went the colors of the 24th brigade

The French army raised a shout that rent the sky, and their cannon began to play on the Prussian lines and

Sudden there shot from the bastion a cubic acre of fire: it carried up a heavy mountain of red and black smoke

that looked solid as marble. There was a heavy, sullen, tremendous explosion that snuffed out the sound of

the cannon, and paralyzed the French and Prussian gunners' hands, and checked the very beating of their

hearts. Thirty thousand pounds of gunpowder were in that awful explosion. War itself held its breath, and

both armies, like peaceable spectators, gazed wonderstruck, terrorstruck. Great hell seemed to burst

through the earth's crust, and to be rushing at heaven. Huge stones, cannons, corpses, and limbs of soldiers,

were seen driven or falling through the smoke. Some of these last came quite clear of the ruins, ay, into the

French and Prussian lines, that even the veterans put their hands to their eyes. Raynal felt something patter on

The smoke cleared. Where, a moment before, the great bastion stood and fought, was a monstrous pile of

blackened, bloody stones and timbers, with dismounted cannon sticking up here and there.

And, rent and crushed to atoms beneath the smoking mass, lay the relics of the gallant brigade, and their

A few wounded soldiers of the brigade lay still till dusk. Then they crept back to the trenches. These had all

been struck down or disabled short of the bastion. Of those that had taken the place no one came home.

Raynal, after the first stupefaction, pressed hard and even angrily for an immediate assault on the whole

Prussian line. Not they. It was on paper that the assault should be at daybreak tomorrow. Such leaders as

Rage and grief in his heart, Raynal waited chafing in the trenches till five minutes past midnight. He then

became commander of the brigade, gave his orders, and took thirty men out to creep up to the wreck of the

Going for so pious a purpose, he was rewarded by an important discovery. The whole Prussian lines had been

abandoned since sunset, and, mounting cautiously on the ramparts, Raynal saw the town too was evacuated,

and lights and other indications on a rising ground behind it convinced him that the Prussians were in full

retreat, probably to effect that junction with other forces which the assault he had recommended would have

They now lighted lanterns, and searched all over and round the bastion for the poor colonel, in the rear of the

bastion they found many French soldiers, most of whom had died by the bayonet. The Prussian dead had all

Here they found the talkative Sergeant La Croix. The poor fellow was silent enough now. A terrible

sabrecut on the skull. The colonel was not there. Raynal groaned, and led the way on to the bastion. The

ruins still smoked. Seven or eight bodies were discovered by an arm or a foot protruding through the masses

of masonry. Of these some were Prussians; a proof that some devoted hand had fired the train, and destroyed

They found the tube of Long Tom sticking up, just as he had shown over the battlements that glorious day,

with this exception, that a great piece was knocked off his lip, and the slice ended in a long, broad crack.

The soldiers looked at this. "That is our bullet's work," said they. Then one old veteran touched his cap, and

told Raynal gravely, he knew where their beloved colonel was. "Dig here, to the bottom," said he. "HE LIES

Improbable and superstitious as this was, the hearts of the soldiers assented to it.

Presently there was a joyful cry outside the bastion. A rush was made thither. But it proved to be only Dard,

who had discovered that Sergeant La Croix's heart still beat. They took him up carefully, and carried him

gently into camp. To Dard's delight the surgeon pronounced him curable. For all that, he was three days

insensible, and after that unfit for duty. So they sent him home invalided, with a hundred francs out of the

Raynal reported the evacuation of the place, and that Colonel Dujardin was buried under the bastion, and

The words Camille had scratched with a pencil, and sent him from the edge of the grave, were few but

"A dead man takes you once more by the hand. My last thought, thank God, is France. For her sake and mine,

Raynal. GO FOR GENERAL BONAPARTE. Tell him, from a dying soldier, the Rhine is a river to these

generals, but to him a field of glory. He will lay out our lives, not waste them."

There was nothing to hinder Raynal from carrying out this sacred request: for the 24th brigade had ceased to

exist: already thinned by hard service, it was reduced to a file or two by the fatal bastion. It was incorporated

with the 12th; and Raynal rode heavy at heart to Paris, with a black scarf across his breast.

You see now into what a fatal entanglement two highminded young ladies were led, step by step, through

yielding to the natural foible of their sexthe desire to hide everything painful from those they love, even at

A nice mess they made of it with their amiable dishonesty. And pray take notice that after the first White Lie

or two, circumstances overpowered them, and drove them on against their will. It was no small part of all

We shall see presently how far they succeeded in that pious object, for the sake of which they first entered on

concealments. But first a word is due about one of the victims of their amiable, self sacrificing lubricity.

Edouard Riviere fell in one night, from happiness and confidence, such as till that night be had never enjoyed,

He lost that which, to every heart capable of really loving, is the greatest earthly blessing, the woman he

adored. But worse than that, he lost those prime treasures of the masculine soul, belief in human goodness,

and in female purity. To him no more could there be in nature a candid eye, a virtuous readymantling cheek:

for frailty and treachery had put on these signs of virtue and nobility. Henceforth, let him live a hundred

Here was a creature whose virtues seemed to make frailty impossible: treachery, doubly impossible: a

creature whose very faultsfor faults she hadhad seemed as opposite to treachery as her very virtues

He passed in that one night of anguish from youth to age. He went about his business like a leaden thing. His

food turned tasteless. His life seemed ended. Nothing appeared what it had been. The very landscape seemed

cut in stone, and he a stone in the middle of it, and his heart a stone in him. At times, across that heavy heart

came gushes of furious rage and bitter mortification; his heart was broken, and his faith was gone, for his

vanity had been stabbed as fiercely as his love. "Georges Dandin!" he would cry, "curse her! curse her!" But

The poor boy pined and pined. His clothes hung loose about him; his face was so drawn with suffering, you

would not have known him. He hated company. The things he was expected to talk about!he with his

crushed heart. He could not. He would not. He shunned all the world; he went alone like a wounded deer. The

good doctor, on his return from Paris, called on him to see if he was ill: since he had not come for days to the

chateau. He saw the doctor coming and bade the servant say he was not in the village.

He drew down the blind, that he might never see the chateau again. He drew it up again: he could not exist

without seeing it. "She will be miserable, too," he cried, gnashing his teeth. "She will see whether she has

chosen well." At other times, all his courage, and his hatred, and his wounded vanity, were drowned in his

love and its despair, and then he bowed his head, and sobbed and cried as if his heart would burst. One

morning he was so sobbing with his head on the table, when his landlady tapped at his door. He started up

He wiped his eyes and seated himself at a table, and, all in a flutter, pretended to be the state's.

It was not Jacintha, as he expected, but the other servant. She made a low reverence, cast a look of admiration

on him, and gave him a letter. His eye darted on it: his hand trembled as he took it. He turned away again to

open it. He forced himself to say, in a tolerably calm voice, "I will send an answer."

The letter was apparently from the baroness de Beaurepaire; a mere line inviting him to pay her a visit. It was

written in a tremulous hand. Edouard examined the writing, and saw directly it was written by Rose.

Being now, naturally enough, full of suspicion, he set this down as an attempt to disguise her hand. "So," said

he, to himself, "this is the game. The old woman is to be drawn into it, too. She is to help to make Georges

Dandin of me. I will go. I will baffle them all. I will expose this nest of depravity, all ceremony on the

surface, and voluptuousness and treachery below. O God! who could believe that creature never loved me!

They shall none of them see my weakness. Their benefactor shall be still their superior. They shall see me

But to follow him farther just now, would be to run too far in advance of the main story. I must, therefore,

return to Beaurepaire, and show, amongst other things, how this very letter came to be written.

When Josephine and Rose awoke from that startled slumber that followed the exhaustion of that troubled

night, Rose was the more wretched of the two. She had not only dishonored herself, but stabbed the man she

Josephine, on the other hand, was exhausted, but calm. The fearful escape she had had softened down by

She began to shut her eyes again, and let herself drift. Above all, the doctor's promise comforted her: that she

Jacintha, conscious that she had betrayed her trust, was almost heartbroken. She was ashamed to appear

before her young mistress, and, cowardlike, wanted to avoid knowing even how much harm she had done.

She pretended toothache, bound up her face, and never stirred from the kitchen. But she was not to escape:

the other servant came down with a message: "Madame Raynal wanted to see her directly."

Josephine rose to meet her, and casting a furtive glance round the room first, threw her arms round Jacintha's

"Was ever fidelity like yours? how COULD you do it, Jacintha? and how can I ever repay it? But, no; it is too

Jacintha was so confounded she did not know what to say. But it was a mystification that could not endure

long between two women, who were both deceived by a third. Between them they soon discovered that it

"Yes, he shall! there must be some limit even to my feebleness, and my sister's devotion. You shall take a line

The letter was written. But it was never sent. Rose found Josephine and Jacintha together; saw a letter was

being written, asked to see it; on Josephine's hesitating, snatched it out of her hand, read it, tore it to pieces,

and told Jacintha to leave the room. She hated the sight of poor Jacintha, who had slept at the very moment

"You have deceived ME! Yes! it has come to that. I know all. Twill not consent to destroy ALL I love."

Rose gave an impetuous refusal. "What could you say to him? foolish thing, don't you know him, and his

vanity? When you had exposed yourself to him, and showed him I had insulted him for you, do you think he

would forgive me? No! this is to make light of my loveto make me waste the sacrifice I have made. I feel

that sacrifice as much as you do, more perhaps, and I would rather die in a convent than waste that night of

shame and agony. Come, promise me, no more attempts of that kind, or we are sisters no more, friends no

The weaker nature, weakened still more by illhealth and grief, was terrified into submission, or rather

temporized. "Kiss me then," said Josephine, "and love me to the end. Ah, if I was only in my grave!"

Rose kissed her with many sighs, but Josephine smiled. Rose eyed her with suspicion. That deep smile; what

did it mean? She had formed some resolution. "She is going to deceive me somehow," thought Rose.

From that day she watched Josephine like a spy. Confidence was gone between them. Suspicion took its

Rose was right in her misgivings. The moment Josephine saw that Edouard's happiness and Rose's were to be

sacrificed for her whom nothing could make happy, the poor thing said to herself, "I CAN DIE."

The doctor gave her laudanum: he found she could not sleep: and he thought it allimportant that she should

Josephine, instead of taking these small doses, saved them all up, secreted them in a phial, and so, from the

sleep of a dozen nights, collected the sleep of death: and now she was tranquil. This young creature that could

not bear to give pain to any one else, prepared her own death with a calm resolution the heroes of our sex

have not often equalled. It was so little a thing to her to strike Josephine. Death would save her honor, would

spare her the frightful alternative of deceiving her husband, or of telling him she was another's. "Poor

Raynal," said she to herself, "it is so cruel to tie him to a woman who can never be to him what he deserves.

Rose would then prove her innocence to Edouard. A few tears for a weak, loving soul, and they would all be

One day the baroness, finding herself alone with Rose and Dr. Aubertin, asked the latter what he thought of

The baroness laid down her knitting and said, with much meaning, "And I tell you, you will never cure her

"Sorrow!" said Aubertin, stoutly concealing the uneasiness these words created, "what sorrow?"

The baroness's pale cheek flushed a little. "I mean," said she, "that my patience is worn out at last; I cannot

live surrounded by secrets. Raynal's gloomy looks when he left us, after staying but one hour; Josephine ill

from that day, and bursting into tears at every word; yourself pale and changed, hiding an unaccountable

sadness under forced smiles Now, don't interrupt me. Edouard, who was almost like a son, gone off,

"Really you are ingenious in tormenting yourself. Josephine is ill! Well, is it so very strange? Have you never

been ill? Rose is pale! you ARE pale, my dear; but she has nursed her sister for a month; is it a wonder she

has lost color? Edouard is gone a journey, to inherit his uncle's property: a million francs. But don't you go

and fall ill, like Josephine; turn pale, like Rose; and make journeys in the region of fancy, after Edouard

This tirade came from Aubertin, and very clever he thought himself. But he had to do with a shrewd old lady,

whose suspicions had long smouldered; and now burst out. She said quietly, "Oh, then Edouard is not in this

The baroness looked inquiringly towards Aubertin. He put on an innocent face and said nothing.

"Very good," said the baroness. "It's plain I am to learn nothing from you two. But I know somebody who

will be more communicative. Yes: this uncomfortable smiling, and unreasonable crying, and interminable

whispering; these appearances of the absent, and disappearances of the present; I shall know this very day

"Oh, never mind; I am an old woman, and I am in my dotage. For all that, perhaps you will allow me two

"I retire, madame," and he disappeared with a bow to her, and an anxious look at Rose. She did not need this;

Mother and daughter looked at one another, as if to measure forces, and then, instead of questioning her as

she had intended, the baroness sank back in her chair and wept aloud. Rose was all unprepared for this. She

almost screamed in a voice of agony, "O mamma! mamma! O God! kill me where I stand for making my

"My girl," said the baroness in a broken voice, and with the most touching dignity, "may you never know

what a mother feels who finds herself shut out from her daughters' hearts. Sometimes I think it is my fault; I

was born in a severer age. A mother nowadays seems to be a sort of elder sister. In my day she was

something more. Yet I loved my mother as well, or better than I did my sisters. But it is not so with those I

At this Rose flung herself, sobbing and screaming, at her mother's knees. The baroness was alarmed. "Come,

dearest, don't cry like that. It is not too late to take your poor old mother into your confidence. What is this

mystery? and why this sorrow? How comes it I intercept at every instant glances that were not intended for

me? Why is the very air loaded with signals and secrecy? (Rose replied only by sobs.) Is some deceit going

on? (Rose sobbed.) Am I to have no reply but these sullen sobs? will you really tell me nothing?"

Such a proposal was not only a relief, but a delight to the deceiving but loving daughter. She started up

crying, "Oh, yes, mamma; anything, everything. Oh, thank you!" In the ardor of her gratitude, she wanted to

kiss her mother; but the baroness declined the embrace politely, and said, coldly and bitterly, "I shall not ask

much; I should not venture now to draw largely on your affection; it's only to write a few lines for me."

Rose got paper and ink with great alacrity, and sat down all beaming, pen in hand.

The baroness dictated the letter slowly, with an eye gimleting her daughter all the time.

"But, mamma, if he is in Normandy," remonstrated Rose, fighting every inch of the ground.

"Yes, mamma," said Rose with sudden alacrity; for she had recovered her ready wit, and was prepared to

"Now sign my name." Rose complied. "There; now fold it, and address it to his lodgings." Rose did so; and,

"No, mademoiselle," said she sternly. "You will give me the letter. I can trust neither the friend of twenty

years, nor the servant that stayed by me in adversity, nor the daughter I suffered for and nursed. And why

At this word, which in its coarsest form she had never heard from those highborn lips till then, Rose

"Ay, A LIE," said the baroness. "I saw Edouard Riviere in the park but yesterday. I saw him. My old eyes are

feeble, but they are not deceitful. I saw him. Send my breakfast to my own room. I come of an ancient race: I

could not sit with liars; I should forget courtesy; you would see in my face how thoroughly I scorn you all."

Rose for the first time, was prostrated. Vain had been all this deceit; her mother was not happy; was not

blinded. Edouard might come and tell her his story. Then no power could keep Josephine silent. The plot was

She sank with a groan into a chair, and body and spirit alike succumbed. But that was only for a little while.

To this prostration succeeded a feverish excitement. She could not, would not, look Edouard in the face. She

would implore Josephine to be silent; and she herself would fly from the chateau. But, if Josephine would not

be silent? Why, then she would go herself to Edouard, and throw herself upon his honor, and tell him the

truth. With this, she ran wildly up the stairs, and burst into Josephine's room so suddenly, that she caught her,

pale as death, on her knees, with a letter in one hand and a phial of laudanum in the other.

Josephine conveyed the phial into her bosom with wonderful rapidity and dexterity, and rose to her feet. But

Rose just saw her conceal something, and resolved to find out quietly what it was. So she said nothing about

Rose took the letter and read it. Raynal had written from Paris. He was coming to Beaurepaire to stay a

Then Rose forgot all about herself, and even what she had come for. She clung about her sister's neck, and

Josephine shuddered, and clung weeping to her sister in turn. For in Rose's arms she realized more

powerfully what that sister would suffer if she were to die. Now, while they clung together, Rose felt

A chill suspicion crossed the poor girl. The attitude in which she had found Josephine; the letter, the look of

despair, and now this little bottle, which she had hidden. WHY HIDE IT? She resolved not to let Josephine

out of her sight; at all events, until she had seen this little bottle, and got it away from her.

She helped her to dress, and breakfasted with her in the tapestried room, and dissembled, and put on gayety,

Her efforts were not quite in vain. Josephine became more composed; and Rose even drew from her a half

And now Rose was relieved of her immediate apprehensions for Josephine, but the danger of another kind,

from Edouard, remained. So she ran into her bedroom for her bonnet and shawl, determined to take the strong

measure of visiting Edouard at once, or intercepting him. While she was making her little toilet, she heard her

mother's voice in the room. This was unlucky; she must pass through that room to go out. She sat down and

fretted at this delay. And then, as the baroness appeared to be very animated, Rose went to the keyhole, and

listened. Their mother was telling Josephine how she had questioned Rose, and how Rose had told her an

untruth, and how she had made that young lady write to Edouard, etc.; in short, the very thing Rose wanted to

Rose lost all patience, and determined to fly through the room and out before anybody could stop her. She

heard Jacintha come in with some message, and thought that would be a good opportunity to slip out

unmolested. So she opened the door softly. Jacintha, it seemed, had been volunteering some remark that was

not well received, for the baroness was saying, sharply, "Your opinion is not asked. Go down directly, and

bring him up here, to this room." Jacintha cast a look of dismay at Rose, and vanished.

Rose gathered from that look, as much as from the words, who the visitor was. She made a dart after Jacintha.

But the room was a long one, and the baroness intercepted her: "No," said she, gravely, "I cannot spare you."

Rose stood pale and panting, but almost defiant. "Mamma," said she, "if it is Monsieur Riviere, I MUST ask

your leave to retire. And you have neither love nor pity, nor respect for me, if you detain me."

"Mademoiselle!" was the stern reply, "I FORBID you to move. Be good enough to sit there;" with which the

baroness pointed imperiously to a sofa at the other side of the room. "Josephine, go to your room." Josephine

Rose looked this way and that in despair and terror; but ended by sinking, more dead than alive, into the seat

indicated; and even as she drooped, pale and trembling, on that sofa, Edouard Riviere, worn and agitated,

The baroness looked at him, and then at her daughter, as much as to say, now I have got you; deceive me now

if you can. "Rose, my dear," said this terrible old woman, affecting honeyed accents, "don't you see Monsieur

The poor girl at this challenge rose with difficulty, and courtesied humbly to Edouard.

He bowed to her, and stealing a rapid glance saw her pallor and distress; and that showed him she was not so

"You have not come to see us lately," said the baroness, quietly, "yet you have been in the neighborhood."

These words puzzled Edouard. Was the old lady all in the dark, then? As a public man he had already learned

to be on his guard; so he stammered out, "That he had been much occupied with public duties."

Madame de Beaurepaire despised this threadbare excuse too much to notice it at all. She went on as if he had

said nothing. "Intimate as you were with us, you must have some reason for deserting us so suddenly."

"No, monsieur, I cannot. This neglect, succeeding to a somewhat ardent pursuit of my daughter, is almost an

affront. You shall, of course, withdraw yourself altogether, if you choose. But not without an explanation.

This much is due to me; and, if you are a gentleman, you will not withhold it from me."

"If he is a gentleman!" cried Rose; "O mamma, do not you affront a gentleman, who never, never gave you

nor me any ground of offence. Why affront the friends and benefactors we have lost by our own fault?"

"All my fault, all," said Rose; then putting her pretty palms together, and casting a look of abject supplication

"Do not you put words into his mouth," said the shrewd old lady. "Come, Monsieur Riviere, be a man, and

By this time the abject state of terror the highspirited Rose was in, and her piteous glances, had so disarmed

"Madame," said he, stiffly, taking Rose's hint, "my temper and mademoiselle's could not accord."

"You misunderstand me, madame; I do not reproach Mademoiselle Rose. It is I who am to blame."

"Rose," said the baroness, her eye now beginning to twinkle, "were you really guilty of such a want of

Rose flung her arms round her mother's neck, and said, "No, mamma, I did not love Monsieur Edouard," in

an exquisite tone of love, that to a female ear conveyed the exact opposite of the words.

But Edouard had not that nice discriminating ear. He sighed deeply, and the baroness smiled. "You tell me

"She is crying, madame?" said Edouard, inquiringly, and taking a step towards them.

"Why, you see she is, you foolish boy. Come, I must put an end to this;" and she rose coolly from her seat,

and begging Edouard to forgive her for leaving him a moment with his deadly enemy, went off with knowing

little nods into Josephine's room; only, before she entered it, she turned, and with a maternal smile discharged

But between the alienated lovers was a long distressing silence. Neither knew what to say; and their situation

was intolerable. At last Rose ventured in a timorous voice to say, "I thank you for your generosity. But I

"Your secret is safe for me," sighed Edouard. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Rose bowed her head with a despairing moan. It took him by the heart and held him. He hesitated, then came

"I see you are sorry for what you have done to me who loved you so; and you loved me. Oh! yes, do not deny

it, Rose; there was a time you loved me. And that makes it worse: to have given me such sweet hopes, only to

crush both them and me. And is not this cruel of you to weep so and let me see your penitencewhen it is

There was a sad silence. Then as he looked at her, her looks belied the charge her own lips had made against

"Tell me you were misled then, fascinated, perverted, but that your heart returned to me. Clear yourself of

"On us! Thank you for saying on us. See now, you have not gained happiness by destroying mine. One

"I am glad of that; since his life is forfeited; if he escapes my friend Raynal, he shall not escape me."

Rose uttered a cry of terror. "Hush! not so loud. The life of Camille! Oh! if he were to die, what would

"Own then that you DO love him," yelled Edouard; "give me truth, if you have no love to give. Own that you

love him, and he shall be safe. It is myself I will kill, for being such a slave as to love you still."

"I cannot bear it," she cried despairingly; "it is beyond my strength; Edouard, swear to me you will keep what

"Then you are under a delirium. I have deceived, but never wronged you; that unhappy child is not Hush!

The baroness came smiling out, and Josephine's wan, anxious face was seen behind her.

"Well," said the baroness, "is the war at an end? What, are we still silent? Let me try then what I can do.

While Edouard hesitated, Josephine clasped her hands and mutely supplicated him to consent. Her sad face,

and the thought of how often she had stood his friend, shook his resolution. He held out his hand, but slowly

Oh! the mixture of feeling, when her soft warm palm pressed his. How the delicious sense baffled and

While the young lovers yet thrilled at each other's touch, yet could not look one another in the face, a clatter

"That is Colonel Raynal," said Josephine, with unnatural calmness. "I expected him today."

Josephine went without a word to her own room. Rose followed her the next minute. But in that one minute

She glided up to Edouard, and looked him full in the face: not the sad, depressed, guiltylooking humble

Rose of a moment before, but the old highspirited, and some what imperious girl.

"You have shown yourself noble this day. I am going to trust you as only the noble are trusted. Stay in the

She was gone, and something leaped within Edouard's bosom, and a flood of light seemed to burst in on him.

Rose ran into Josephine's room, and once more surprised her on her knees, and in the very act of hiding

Rose said nothing. She turned paler. She is deceiving me, thought she, and she sat down full of bitterness and

"No, Josephine, I will not leave you till this terrible meeting is over. We will encounter him hand in hand, as

we used to go when our hearts were one, and we deceived others, but never each other."

"I will not deceive you," she said. "I am worse than the poor doctor thinks me. My life is but a little candle

"My little Henri," said Josephine imploringly, "what would you do with himif anything should happen to

"What would I do with him? He is mine. I should be his mother. Oh! what words are these: my heart! my

"No, dearest; some day you will be married, and owe all the mother to your children; and Henri is not ours

only: he belongs to some one I have seemed unkind to. Perhaps he thinks me heartless. For I am a foolish

woman; I don't know how to be virtuous, yet show a man my heart. But THEN he will understand me and

forgive me. Rose, love, you will write to him. He will come to you. You will go together to the place where I

shall be sleeping. You will show him my heart. You will tell him all my long love that lasted to the end. YOU

need not blush to tell him all. I have no right. Then you will give him his poor Josephine's boy, and you will

say to him, 'She never loved but you: she gives you all that is left of her, her child. She only prays you not to

Poor soul! this was her one bit of little, gentle jealousy; but it made her eyes stream. She would have put out

"Oh! my Josephine, my darling sister," cried Rose, "why do you speak of death? Do you meditate a crime?"

"At least, take me to your bosom, my wellbeloved, that I may not SEE your tears."

The sisters twined their bosoms together in a long, gentle embrace. You might have taken them for two

Josephine and Rose postponed the inevitable one moment more, by arranging their hair in the glass: then they

Raynal was sitting on the sofa, the baroness's hand in his. Edouard was not there.

Colonel Raynal had given him a strange look, and said, "What, you here?" in a tone of voice that was

The doctor now joined the party, and friendly greetings passed between him and Raynal.

But ere long somehow all became conscious this was not a joyful meeting. The baroness could not alone

sustain the spirits of the party, and soon even she began to notice that Raynal's replies were short, and that his

manner was distrait and gloomy. The sisters saw this too, and trembled for what might be coming.

The baroness gave the doctor a look, and made an excuse for going downstairs to her own room. As she was

Raynal looked at Rose. She saw she must go, but she lingered, and sought her sister's eye: it avoided her. At

"Oh! doctor," she whispered trembling, "don't go beyond the door. I found her praying. My mind misgives

"I am afraid to say all I dread. She could not be so calm if she meant to live. Be near! as I shall. She has a

"Excuse me," said she to Raynal, "I only came to ask Josephine if she wants anything."

Rose mixed it for her. While doing this she noticed that Josephine shunned her eye, but Raynal gazed gently

Raynal had something to say so painful that he shrank from plunging into it. He therefore, like many others,

"Your health," said he, "alarms me. You seem sad, too. I don't understand that. You have no news from the

"Do not call me monsieur, nor look so frightened. Call me your friend. I am your sincere friend."

"It was a shock to me, too, I can tell you. I like the boy. She professed to love him, and, to own the truth, I

loathe all treachery and deceit. If I had done a murder, I would own it. A lie doubles every crime. But I took

heart; we are all selfish, we men; of the two sisters one was all innocence and good faith; and she was the one

At these words Josephine rose, like a statue moving, and took a phial from her bosom and poured the contents

But ere she could drink it, if such was her intention, Raynal, with his eyes gloomily lowered, said, in a voice

Josephine put down the glass directly, though without removing her hand from it.

"I see you understand me, and approve. Yes, I saw that your sister would be dishonored, and I went to the

Josephine resolved to know the worst at once. "May I ask," said she, "what you told him?"

"Why, I told him all I had discovered, and pointed out the course he must take; he must marry your sister at

once. He refused. I challenged him. But ere we met, I was ordered to lead a forlorn hope against a bastion.

Then, seeing me go to certain death, the noble fellow pitied me. I mean this is how I understood it all at the

Josephine put out her hand, and with a horrible smile said, "I thank you; you have saved the honor of our

family;" and with no more ado, she took the glass in her hand to drink the fatal contents.

But Raynal's reply arrested her hand. He said solemnly, "No, I have not. Have you no inkling of the terrible

truth? Do not fiddle with that glass: drink it, or leave it alone; for, indeed, I need all your attention."

He took the glass out of her patient hand, and with a furtive look at the bedroomdoor, drew her away to the

other end of the room; "and," said he, "I could not tell your mother, for she knows nothing of the girl's folly;

still less Rose, for I see she loves him still, or why is she so pale? Advise me, now, whilst we are alone.

Colonel Dujardin was COMPARATIVELY indifferent to YOU. Will you undertake the task? A rough soldier

"What tidings? You confuse, you perplex me. Oh! what does this horrible preparation mean?"

Then Raynal walked the room in great agitation, which at once communicated itself to his hearer. But the

"I see," said she; "he told you he would never visit Beaurepaire again. He was right."

"Ah, Josephine, you are far from the truth. I was to attack the bastion. It was mined by the enemy, and he

knew it. He took advantage of my back being turned. He led his men out of the trenches; he assaulted the

"Dead!" said Josephine, in stupefied tones, as if the word conveyed no meaning to her mind, benumbed and

"Don't speak so loud," said Raynal; "I hear the poor girl at the door. Ay, he took my place, and is dead."

Josephine's whole body gave way, and heaved like a tree falling under the axe. She sank slowly to her knees,

She did not see him nor hear him, but moaned out wildly, "Dead, dead, dead!" The bedroomdoor was

She shrieked with sudden violence, "Dead! ah, pity! the glass! the composing draught." She stretched her

hands out wildly. Raynal, with a face full of concern, ran to the table, and got the glass. She crawled on her

Even as their hands met, Rose threw herself on the cup, and snatched it with fury from them both. She was

white as ashes, and her eyes, supernaturally large, glared on Raynal with terror. "Madman!" she cried, "would

He glared back on her: what did this mean? Their eyes were fixed on each other like combatants for life and

death; they did not see that the room was filling with people, that the doctor was only on the other side of the

table, and that the baroness and Edouard were at the door, and all looking wonderstruck at this strange

sight Josephine on her knees, and those two facing each other, white, with dilating eyes, the glass between

But what was that to the horror, when the next moment the patient Josephine started to her feet, and, standing

"Ah! you won't let me die. Curse you all! curse you! I never had my own way in anything. I was always a

slave and a fool. I have murdered the man I loveI love. Yes, my husband, do you hear? the man I love."

"Your gray hairs! You are not so old in years as I am in agony. So this is your love, Rose! Ah, you won't let

"He who is dead; you have murdered him amongst you, and I'll follow him in spite of you allhe was my

betrothed. He struggled wounded, bleeding, to my feet. He found me married. News came of my husband's

"Ah, my poor mother. And she kissed me so kindly just nowshe will kiss me no more. Oh, I am not

ashamed of marrying him. I am only ashamed of the cowardice that dared not do it in face of all the world.

We had scarce been happy a fortnight, when a letter came from Colonel Raynal. He was alive. I drove my

true husband away, wretch that I was. None but bad women have an atom of sense. I tried to do my duty to

my legal husband. He was my benefactor. I thought it was my duty. Was it? I don't know: I have lost the

sense of right and wrong. I turned from a living creature to a lie. He who had scattered benefits on me and all

this house; he whom it was too little to love; he ought to have been adored: this man came here one night to

wife proud, joyous, and warmhearted. He found a cradle, and two women watching it. Now Edouard, now

MONSIEUR, do you see that life is IMPOSSIBLE to me? One bravely accused herself: she was innocent.

"Yes, Edouard, you shall not be miserable like me; she was guilty. You do not understand me yet, my poor

motherand she was so happy this morningI was the liar, the coward, the doublefaced wife, the

miserable mother that denied her child. Now will you let me die? Now do you see that I can't and won't live

upon shame and despair? Ah, Monsieur Raynal, my dear friend, you were always generous: you will pity and

kill me. I have dishonored the name you gave me to keep: I am neither Beaurepaire nor Raynal. Do pray kill

And she crawled to his knees and embraced them, and kissed his hand, and pleaded more piteously for death,

Raynal stood like a rock: he was pale, and drew his breath audibly, but not a word. Then came a sight scarce

less terrible than Josephine's despair. The baroness, looking and moving twenty years older than an hour

"Sir, you whom I have called my son, but whom I will never presume so to call again, I thought I had lived

long enough never to have to blush again. I loved you, monsieur. I prayed every day for you. But she who

WAS my daughter was not of my mind. Monsieur, I have never knelt but to God and to my king, and I kneel

She tried to go down on her knees. He raised her with his strong arm, but he could not speak. She turned on

"So this is the secret you were hiding from me! This secret has not killed you all. Oh! I shall not live under its

shame so long as you have. Chateau of Beaurepairenest of treason, ingratitude, and immodestyI loathe

you as much as once I loved you. I will go and hide my head, and die elsewhere."

"Stay, madame!" said he, in a voice whose depth and dignity was such that it seemed impossible to disobey

There was a long, trembling silence; and during that silence and terrible agitation, one figure stood firm

among those quaking, beating hearts, like a rock with the waves breaking round itthe MAN OF

He raised Josephine from her knees, and placed her all limp and powerless in an armchair. To her frenzy

"Your mistake has been not trusting me. I was your friend, and not a selfish friend. I was not enough in love

with you to destroy your happiness. Besides, I despise that sort of love. If you had told me all, I would have

spared you this misery. By the present law, civil contracts of marriage can be dissolved by mutual consent."

"Ah!" continued Raynal, sadly, "you are aristocrats, and cannot keep pace with the times. This very day our

mere contract shall be formally dissolved. Indeed, it ceases to exist since both parties are resolved to

withdraw from it. So, if you married Dujardin in a church, you are Madame Dujardin at this moment, and his

This question was to Rose, for what Josephine uttered sounded like a mere articulate moan. But Rose's quick

ear had caught words, and she replied, all in tears, "My poor sister is blessing you, sir. We all bless you."

"She does not understand my position," said Raynal. He then walked up to Josephine, and leaning over her

arm, and speaking rather loud, under the impression that her senses were blunted by grief, he said, "Look

here: Colonel Dujardin, your husband, deliberately, and with his eyes open, sacrificed his life for me, and for

his own heroic sense of honor. Now, it is my turn. If that hero stood here, and asked me for all the blood in

my body, I would give it him. He is gone; but, dying for me, he has left me his widow and his child; they

remain under my wing. To protect them is my pride, and my only consolation. I am going to the mayor to

annul our unlucky contract in due form, and make us brother and sister instead. But," turning to the baroness,

"don't you think to escape me as your daughter has done: no, no, old lady, once a mother, always a mother.

And with these words, in speaking which his voice had recovered its iron firmness, he strode out at the door,

superb in manhood and principle, and every eye turned with wonder and admiration after him. Even when he

was gone they gazed at the door by which a creature so strangely noble had disappeared.

The baroness was about to follow him without taking any notice of Josephine. But Rose caught her by the

The baroness only made a gesture of horror and disgust, and turned her back on them both.

Josephine, who had tottered up from her seat at Rose's words, sank heavily down again, and murmured, "Ah!

Rose ran to her side. "Cruel Josephine! what, do not I love you? Mother, will you not help me persuade her to

Stern and indignant as the baroness was, yet these words pierced her heart. She turned with a piteous, half

apologetic air to Edouard and Aubertin. "Gentlemen," said she, "she has been foolish, not guilty. Heaven

pardons the best of us. Surely a mother may forgive her child." And with this nature conquered utterly; and

she held out her arms, wide, wide, as is a mother's heart. Her two erring children rushed sobbing violently

After this, Josephine's heart almost ceased to beat. Fear and misgivings, and the heavy sense of deceit

gnawing an honorable heart, were gone. Grief reigned alone in the pale, listless, bereaved widow.

The marriage was annulled before the mayor; and, three days afterwards, Raynal, by his influence, got the

With a delicacy for which one would hardly have given him credit, he never came near Beaurepaire till all

this was settled; but he brought the document from Paris that made Josephine the widow Dujardin, and her

boy the heir of Beaurepaire; and the moment she was really Madame Dujardin he avoided her no longer; and

The dissolution of the marriage was a great tie between them. So much that, seeing how much she looked up

to Raynal, the doctor said one day to the baroness, "If I know anything of human nature, they will marry

They, who have habituated themselves to live for others, can suffer as well as do great things. Josephine kept

Then they used to talk to her of her boy. Would she leave him Camille's boywithout a mother? And

Her mother forgave her entirely, and loved her as before. Who could be angry with her long? The air was no

longer heavy with lies. Wretched as she was, she breathed lighter. Joy and hope were gone. Sorrowful peace

was coming. When the heart comes to this, nothing but Time can cure; but what will not Time do? What

The little party sat one day, peaceful, but silent and sad, in the Pleasaunce, under the great oak.

Two soldiers came to the gate. They walked feebly, for one was lame, and leaned upon the other, who was

Rose went towards them; but she had scarcely taken three steps ere she cried out,

Dard limped towards them, leaning upon Sergeant La Croix. A bit of Dard's heel had been shot away, and of

"Jacintha, bring out a table into the Pleasaunce, and something for two guests to eat."

The soldiers came slowly to the Pleasaunce, and were welcomed, and invited to sit down, and received with

Soon Jacintha came out with a little round table in her hands, and affected a composure which was belied by

After a few words of homely welcomenot eloquent, but very sincere she went off again with her apron

to her eyes. She reappeared with the good cheer, and served the poor fellows with radiant zeal.

Dard was about to answer, but his superior stopped him severely; then, rising with his hand to his forehead,

he replied, with pride, "Twentyfourth brigade, second company. We were cut up at Philipsburg, and

Raynal instantly regretted his question; for Josephine's eye fixed on Sergeant La Croix with an expression

words cannot paint. Yet she showed more composure, real or forced, than he expected.

Colonel Raynal interfered hastily. "Think what you do. He can tell you nothing but what we know, not so

much, in fact, as we know; for, now I look at him, I think this is the very sergeant we found lying insensible

"I was, colonel, I was. I remember nothing but losing my senses, and feeling the colors go out of my hand."

"It was hot work, colonel, under that bastion, but it was hotter to the poor fellows that got in. I heard all about

"Yes, I was struck down with the colors of the brigade in my hand," cried La Croix.

"See how people blunder about, everything; they told me the colonel carried the colors."

"Why, of course he did. You don't think our colonel, the fighting colonel, would let me hold the colors of the

brigade so long as he was alive. No; he was struck by a Prussian bullet, and he had just time to hand the

colors to me, and point with his sword to the bastion, and down he went. It was hot work, I can tell you. I did

not hold them long, not thirty seconds, and if we could know their history, they passed through more hands

"Poor colonel!" continued La Croix. "Well, I love to think he died like a soldier, and not like some of my

poor comrades, hashed to atoms, and not a volley fired over him. I hope they put a stone over him, for he was

"O sir!" cried Josephine, "there is no stone even to mark the spot where he fell," and she sobbed despairingly.

Dard apologized for his comrade, and touching his own head significantly told them that since his wound the

"Now, sergeant, didn't I tell you the colonel must have got the better of his wound, and got into the battery?"

"It's false, Private Dard; don't I know our colonel better than that? Would ever he have let those colors out of

Here Jacintha put in a word with the quiet subdued meaning of her class. "I can't find that anybody ever saw

"They did not find him, because they did not look for him," said Sergeant La Croix.

"God forgive you, sergeant!" said Dard, with some feeling. "Not look for OUR COLONEL! We turned over

"Ay! but I don't see why they should carry our colonel off. His epaulets was all the thieves could do any good

with. Stop! yet I do, Private Dard; I have a horrible suspicion. No, I have not; it is a certainty. What! don't

you see, ye ninny? Thunder and thousands of devils, here's a disgrace. Dogs of Prussians! they have got our

"O God bless them!" cried Josephine; "O God bless the mouth that tells me so! O sir, I am his wife, his poor

heartbroken wife. You would not be so cruel as to mock my despair. Say again that he may be alive, pray,

"His wife! Private Dard, why didn't you tell me? You tell me nothing. Yes, my pretty lady, I'll say it again,

and I'll prove it. Here is an enemy in full retreat, would they encumber themselves with the colonel? If he was

dead, they'd have whipped off his epaulets, and left him there. Alive? why not? Look at me: I am alive, and I

was worse wounded than he was. They took me for dead, you see. Courage, madame! you will see him again,

take an old soldier's word for it. Dard, attention! this is the colonel's wife."

Every eye and every soul had been so bent on Sergeant La Croix that it was only now Raynal was observed to

be missing. The next minute he came riding out of the stableyard, and went full gallop down the road.

"Ah!" cried Rose, with a burst of hope; "he thinks so too; he has hopes. He is gone somewhere for

Josephine's excitement and alternations of hope and fear were now alarming. Rose held her hand, and

Just before dark he came riding fiercely home. Josephine flew down the stairs. Raynal at sight of her forgot

all his caution. He waved his cocked hat in the air. She fell on her knees and thanked God. He gasped out,

"Prisonerexchanged for two Prussian lieutenantssent homethey say he is in France!"

Some days passed in hope and joy inexpressible; but the good doctor was uneasy for Josephine. She was

always listening with supernatural keenness and starting from her chair, and every fibre of her lovely person

Nor was Rose without a serious misgiving. Would husband and wife ever meet? He evidently looked on her

They had recourse to that eversoothing influenceher child. Madame Jouvenel was settled in the village,

and Josephine visited her every day, and came back often with red eyes, but always soothed.

One day Rose and she went to Madame Jouvenel, and, entering the house without ceremony, found the nurse

Josephine stopped eagerly to kiss him. But instead of kissing him, she uttered a loud cry. There was a locket

It was a locket containing some of Josephine's hair and Camille's. She had given it him in the happy days that

followed their marriage. She stood gasping in the middle of the room. Madame Jouvenel came running in

soon after. Josephine, by a wonderful effort over herself, asked her calmly and cunningly,

"Where is the gentleman who put this locket round my child's neck? I want to speak with him."

"What am I to do?" said Madame Jouvenel. "He made me swear never to mention his coming here. He goes

away, or hides whenever you come. And since Madame does not love the poor wounded gentleman, what can

"Not love him!" cried Rose: "why, she is his wife, his lawful wedded wife; he is a fool or a monster to run

away for her. She loves him as no woman ever loved before. She pines for him. She dies for him."

The door of a little back room opened at these words of Rose, and there stood Camille, with his arm in a

Josephine gave a cry of love that made the other two women weep, and in a moment they were sobbing for

Away went sorrow, doubt, despair, and all they had suffered. That one moment paid for all. And in that

moment of joy and surprise, so great as to be almost terrible, perhaps it was well for Josephine that Camille,

weakened by his wound, was quite overcome, and nearly fainted. She was herself just going into hysterics;

but, seeing him quite overcome, she conquered them directly, and nursed, and soothed, and pitied, and

Then they sat hand in hand. Their happiness stopped their very breath. They could not speak. So Rose told

him all. He never owned why he had slipped away when he saw them coming. He forgot it. He forgot all his

hard thoughts of her. They took him home in the carriage. His wife would not let him out of her sight. For

years and years after this she could hardly bear to let him be an hour out of her sight.

The world is wide; there may be a man in it who can paint the sudden bliss that fell on these two much

suffering hearts; but I am not that man; this is beyond me; it was not only heaven, but heaven after hell.

Leave we the indescribable and the unspeakable for a moment, and go to a lighter theme.

The day Rose's character was so unexpectedly cleared, Edouard had no opportunity of speaking to her, or a

reconciliation would have taken place. As it was, he went home intensely happy. But he did not resume his

visits to the chateau. When he came to think calmly over it, his vanity was cruelly mortified. She was

innocent of the greater offence; but how insolently she had sacrificed him, his love, and his respect, to

More generous thoughts prevailed by degrees. And one day that her pale face, her tears, and her remorse got

the better of his offended pride, he determined to give her a good lecture that should drown her in penitent

tears; and then end by forgiving her. For one thing he could not be happy till he had forgiven her.

She walked into the room with a calm, dignified, stately air, and before he could utter one word of his grave

remonstrance, attacked him thus: "You wish to speak to me, sir. If it is to apologize to me, I will save your

"No violence, if you please," said the lady with cold hauteur. "Let us be friends, as Josephine and Raynal are.

We cannot be anything more to one another now. You have wounded me too deeply by your jealous,

Edouard gasped for breath, and was so far outgeneralled that he accepted the place of defendant. "Wasn't I

"Oh, that's excusable. He did not know me. But you were my lover; you ought to have seen I was forced to

deceive poor Raynal. How dare you believe your eyes; much more your ears, against my truth, against my

honor; and then to believe such nonsense?" Then, with a grand assumption of superior knowledge, says she,

"You little simpleton, how could the child be mine when I wasn't married at all?"

"Yes, and you forgot the moon isn't made of green cheese. However, if I saw you very humble, and very

"No, forgive me at once. I don't understand your angelical, diabolical, incomprehensible sex: who on earth

Lo! the tears that could not come at a remonstrance were flowing in a stream at his generosity.

"What is the matter now?" said he tenderly. She cried away, but at the same time explained,

"What a fffoolish you must be not to see that it is I who am without excuse. You were my betrothed. It

was to you I owed my duty; not my sister. I am a wicked, unhappy girl. How you must hate me!"

"I adore you. There, no more forgiving on either side. Let our only quarrel be who shall love the other best."

"Oh, I know how that will be," said the observant toad. "You will love me best till you have got me; and then

However, the prospect of loving best did not seem disagreeable to her; for with this announcement she

deposited her head on his shoulder, and in that attitude took a little walk with him up and down the

These two were a happy pair. This wayward, but generous heart never forgot her offence, and his forgiveness.

She gave herself to him heart and soul, at the altar, and well she redeemed her vow. He rose high in political

life: and paid the penalty of that sort of ambition; his heart was often sore. But by his own hearth sat comfort

and ever ready sympathy. Ay, and patient industry to read bluebooks, and a ready hand and brain to write

It was only a little bit of heel that Dard had left in Prussia. More fortunate than his predecessor (Achilles), he

He married Jacintha, and Josephine set them up in Bigot's, (deceased) auberge. Jacintha shone as a landlady,

and custom flowed in. For all that, a hankering after Beaurepaire was observable in her. Her favorite stroll

was into the Beaurepaire kitchen, and on all fetes and grand occasions she was prominent in gay attire as a

retainer of the house. The last specimen of her homely sagacity I shall have the honor to lay before you is a

"My Dard," said she, "is very good as far as he goes. What he has felt himself, that he can feel FOR: nobody

better. You come to him with an empty belly, or a broken head, or all bleeding with a cut, or black and blue,

and you shall find a friend. But if it is a sore heart, or trouble, and sorrow, and no hole in your carcass to

show for it, you had better come to ME; for you might as well tell your grief to a stone wall as to my man."

The baroness took her son Raynal to Paris, and there, with keen eye, selected him a wife. She proved an

excellent one. It would have been hard if she had not, for the baroness with the severe sagacity of her age and

sex, had set aside as naught a score of seeming angels, before she could suit herself with a daughterinlaw.

At first the Raynals very properly saw little of the Dujardins; but when both had been married some years, the

recollection of that fleeting and nominal connection waxed faint, while the memory of great benefits

conferred on both sides remained lively as ever in hearts so great, and there was a warm, a sacred friendship

between the two housesa friendship of the ancient Greeks, not of the modern clubhouse.

Camille and Josephine were blessed almost beyond the lot of humanity: none can really appreciate sunshine

but those who come out of the cold dark. And so with happiness. For years they could hardly be said to live

like mortals: they basked in bliss. But it was a near thing; for they but just scraped clear of lifelong misery,

A wholesome lesson, therefore, and a warning may be gathered from this story: and I know many novelists

who would have preached that lesson at some length in every other chapter, and interrupted the sacred

narrative to do it. But when I read stories so mutilated, I think of a circumstance related by Mr. Joseph Miller.

"An Englishman sojourning in some part of Scotland was afflicted with many hairs in the butter, and

remonstrated. He was told, in reply, that the hairs and the butter came from one sourcethe cow; and that

the just and natural proportions hitherto observed, could not be deranged, and bald butter inventedfor

ONE. 'So be it,' said the Englishman; 'but let me have the butter in one plate, and the hairs in another.'"

Acting on this hint, I have reserved some admirable remarks, reflections, discourses, and tirades, until the

And now that the proper time is come, that love of intruding one's own wisdom in one's own person on the

reader, which has marred so many works of art, is in my case restrainedfirst, by pure fatigue; secondly,

because the moral of this particular story stands out so clear in the narrative, that he who runs may read it

Those who will not take the trouble to gather my moral from the living tree, would not lift it out of my dead

basket: would not unlock their jawbones to bite it, were I to thrust it into their very mouths.