had not my uncle's very bad health disabled him, he or my aunt would
have forced upon you a visit; but he was too ill to leave home, and she
had no one to take her place with him or with me, and before I was old
enough to assist her he was no more, and circumstances were changed with
us. She did, however, to the last, often talk of you, hoping you would
meet, if not in this world, in the next."

More was said upon this subject, and it was not till some time afterwards
that the conversation was renewed, when D'Elsac said, "Then I must take
Lisette, I suppose, with me to Grenoble, for when you flatter her she is
good tempered, and I own I am afraid of Caliste."

"Lisette will not, I think, leave Salency whilst she is Rosiere," replied
her sister. "She could not make up her mind, I fear, to give up her
crown, thorny as it appears to others."

"I will ask her," replied D'Elsac, "but I acknowledge to you, Victorine,
I rather hope a refusal. If you will not return with me, I prefer the
hired labour of a stranger."

Dorsain then sought Lisette to learn her mind. He found her deep in
consultation about the only subject that now occupied her; and, as
Victorine expected, she refused at once the invitation, scarcely deigning
to clothe her answer in courteous terms.

"Well, I am heartily glad of it," thought her uncle. "She has no pity
for her sister's disappointment; she thinks of nothing but herself. What
peace could I have hoped for in my family with an inmate so fearfully
selfish?"

D'Elsac was thus, as it were, forced to think of Caliste; but it was with
such repugnance that he could not make up his mind to offer to her the
situation he had offered her sisters. He had never seen her brow
unclouded; never seen that beautiful lip divested of its scorn never
heard one expression from her that did not betray a mind full of
vexation, jealousy, and passion. To her, therefore, he would not address
himself, though he watched her with great anxiety, allowing the days to
pass till the 8th of June, the morning of the fete of St. Medard.

What a beautiful and lovely morning was that in Salency, and how eagerly
did the eyes of all the family of Durocher regard the weather, though
very different were their feelings on the subject! Lisette had been kept
awake by the thought of her approaching triumph; Caliste, too, had not
slept; but her pale countenance and hollow eye told a tale of sorrow and
dejection.

Scarcely was a wo