sir, you would prefer meat and wine after the fatigue to
which you have been subjected?"

He declined the offer, however. "A thousand thanks, madame; a little
milk, with bread and butter, will be best for me."

At that moment a door was smartly opened and Gilberte entered the room
with outstretched hand. Delaherche must have told her who was there, for
her ordinary hour of rising was ten o'clock. She was tall, lithe of form
and well-proportioned, with an abundance of handsome black hair, a pair
of handsome black eyes, and a very rosy, wholesome complexion withal;
she had a laughing, rather free and easy way with her, and it did
not seem possible she could ever look angry. Her peignoir of beige,
embroidered with red silk, was evidently of Parisian manufacture.

"Ah, Captain," she rapidly said, shaking hands with the young man, "how
nice of you to stop and see us, away up in this out-of-the-world place!"
But she was the first to see that she had "put her foot in it" and laugh
at her own blunder. "Oh, what a stupid thing I am! I might know you
would rather be somewhere else than at Sedan, under the circumstances.
But I am very glad to see you once more."

She showed it; her face was bright and animated, while Madame
Delaherche, who could not have failed to hear something of the gossip
that had been current among the scandalmongers of Charleville, watched
the pair closely with her puritanical air. The captain was very reserved
in his behavior, however, manifesting nothing more than a pleasant
recollection of hospitalities previously received in the house where he
was visiting.

They had no more than sat down at table than Delaherche, burning to
relieve himself of the subject that filled his mind, commenced to relate
his experiences of the day before.

"You know I saw the Emperor at Baybel."

He was fairly started and nothing could stop him. He began by describing
the farmhouse, a large structure with an interior court, surrounded by
an iron railing, and situated on a gentle eminence overlooking Mouzon,
to the left of the Carignan road. Then he came back to the 12th corps,
whom he had visited in their camp among the vines on the hillsides;
splendid troops they were, with their equipments brightly shining in
the sunlight, and the sight of them had caused his heart to beat with
patriotic ardor.

"And there I was, sir, when the Emperor, who had alighted to breakfast
and rest himself a bit, came out of the farmhouse. H