the Second Empire, the horrors of two sieges; she has been in contact
with marked personalities, with great events, she has lived on her
wealth, on her personality, and there she is with her plumage unruffled,
as glossy as ever, unable to get old:--a sort of Phoenix free from the
slightest signs of ashes and dust, all complacent amongst those inanities
as if there had been nothing else in the world. In my youthful haste I
asked myself what sort of airy soul she had.

At last Therese put a dish of fruit on the table, a small collection of
oranges, raisins, and nuts. No doubt she had bought that lot very cheap
and it did not look at all inviting. Captain Blunt jumped up. "My
mother can't stand tobacco smoke. Will you keep her company, _mon cher_,
while I take a turn with a cigar in that ridiculous garden. The brougham
from the hotel will be here very soon."

He left us in the white flash of an apologetic grin. Almost directly he
reappeared, visible from head to foot through the glass side of the
studio, pacing up and down the central path of that "ridiculous" garden:
for its elegance and its air of good breeding the most remarkable figure
that I have ever seen before or since. He had changed his coat. Madame
Blunt _mere_ lowered the long-handled glasses through which she had been
contemplating him with an appraising, absorbed expression which had
nothing maternal in it. But what she said to me was:

"You understand my anxieties while he is campaigning with the King."

She had spoken in French and she had used the expression "_mes transes_"
but for all the rest, intonation, bearing, solemnity, she might have been
referring to one of the Bourbons. I am sure that not a single one of
them looked half as aristocratic as her son.

"I understand perfectly, Madame. But then that life is so romantic."

"Hundreds of young men belonging to a certain sphere are doing that," she
said very distinctly, "only their case is different. They have their
positions, their families to go back to; but we are different. We are
exiles, except of course for the ideals, the kindred spirit, the
friendships of old standing we have in France. Should my son come out
unscathed he has no one but me and I have no one but him. I have to
think of his life. Mr. Mills (what a distinguished mind that is!) has
reassured me as to my son's health. But he sleeps very badly, doesn't
he?"

I murmured something affirmative in a doubtful tone