ng to attach to that incident,
and Madame d'Auffray was misled. Truly, the Englishman may be just such
an ex-lover, uninflammable by virtue of his blood's native coldness;
endued with the frozen vanity called pride, which does not seek to be
revenged. Under wary espionage, he might be a young woman's friend,
though male friend of a half-abandoned wife should write himself down
morally saint, mentally sage, medically incurable, if he would win our
confidence.

This lady of sharp intelligence was the guardian of Renee during the
foolish husband's flights about Paris and over Europe, and, for a proof
of her consummate astuteness, Renee had no secrets and had absolute
liberty. And hitherto no man could build a boast on her reputation. The
liberty she would have had at any cost, as Madame d'Auffray knew; and an
attempt to restrict it would have created secrets.

Near upon the breakfast-hour Renee was perceived by them going toward
the chateau at a walking pace. They crossed one of the garden bridges to
intercept her. She started out of some deep meditation, and raised
her whip hand to Beauchamp's greeting. 'I had forgotten to tell you,
monsieur, that I should be out for some hours in the morning.'

'Are you aware,' said Madame d'Auffray, 'that M. Beauchamp leaves us
to-morrow?'

'So soon?' It was uttered hardly with a tone of disappointment.

The marquise alighted, crying hold, to the stables, caressed her horse,
and sent him off with a smack on the smoking flanks to meet the groom.

'To-morrow? That is very soon; but M. Beauchamp is engaged in an
Election, and what have we to induce him to stay?'

'Would it not be better to tell M. Beauchamp why he was invited to
come?' rejoined Madame d'Auffray.

The sombre light in Renee's eyes quickened through shadowy spheres of
surprise and pain to resolution. She cried, 'You have my full consent,'
and left them.

Madame d'Auffray smiled at Beauchamp, to excuse the childishness of
the little story she was about to relate; she gave it in the essence,
without a commencement or an ending. She had in fact but two or three
hurried minutes before the breakfast-bell would ring; and the fan
she opened and shut, and at times shaded her head with, was nearly as
explicit as her tongue.

He understood that Renee had staked her glove on his coming within a
certain number of hours to the briefest wording of invitation possible.
Owing to his detention by the storm, M. d'Henriel had won th