of thunder
through the hearts of the two lovers. The Marquis had come home.

Before Julie could recover her presence of mind, her husband was on the
way to the door of her room which opened into his. Luckily, at a sign,
Lord Grenville escaped into the dressing-closet, and she hastily shut
the door upon him.

"Well, my lady, here am I," said Victor, "the hunting party did not come
off. I am just going to bed."

"Good-night, so am I. So go and leave me to undress."

"You are very cross to-night, Madame la Marquise."

The General returned to his room, Julie went with him to the door and
shut it. Then she sprang to the dressing-close to release Arthur. All
her presence of mind returned; she bethought herself that it was quite
natural that her sometime doctor should pay her a visit; she might have
left him in the drawing-room while she put her little girl to bed. She
was about to tell him, under her breath, to go back to the drawing-room,
and had opened the door. Then she shrieked aloud. Lord Grenville's
fingers had been caught and crushed in the door.

"Well, what is it?" demanded her husband.

"Oh! nothing, I have just pricked my finger with a pin."

The General's door opened at once. Julie imagined that the irruption was
due to a sudden concern for her, and cursed a solicitude in which love
had no part. She had barely time to close the dressing-closet, and Lord
Grenville had not extricated his hand. The General did, in fact, appear,
but his wife had mistaken his motives; his apprehensions were entirely
on his own account.

"Can you lend me a bandana handkerchief? The stupid fool Charles leaves
me without a single one. In the early days you used to bother me with
looking after me so carefully. Ah, well, the honeymoon did not last very
long for me, nor yet for my cravats. Nowadays I am given over to the
secular arm, in the shape of servants who do not care one jack straw for
what I say."

"There! There is a bandana for you. Did you go into the drawing-room?"

"No."

"Oh! you might perhaps have been in time to see Lord Grenville."

"Is he in Paris?"

"It seems so."

"Oh! I will go at once. The good doctor."

"But he will have gone by now!" exclaimed Julie.

The Marquis, standing in the middle of the room, was tying the
handkerchief over his head. He looked complacently at himself in the
glass.

"What has become of the servants is more than I know," he remarked. "I
have rung the bell for Charles, and