s possible, as I should like to bring them back before noon.

"We are ready, madame," said Rose.

"Well then, young ladies, embrace your second mother, and come," said
Mrs. Grivois, who was hardly able to control her uneasiness, for she
trembled lest Dagobert should return from one moment to the other.

Rose and Blanche embraced Frances, who, clasping in her arms the two
charming and innocent creatures that she was about to deliver up, could
with difficulty restrain her tears, though she was fully convinced that
she was acting for their salvation.

"Come, young ladies," said Mrs. Grivois, in the most affable tone, "let
us make haste--you will excuse my impatience, I am sure--but it is in
the name of your relation that I speak."

Having once more tenderly kissed the wife of Dagobert, the sisters
quitted the room hand in hand, and descended the staircase close
behind Mrs. Grivois, followed (without their being aware of it), by
Spoil-sport. The intelligent animal cautiously watched their movements,
for, in the absence of his master, he never let them out of his sight.

For greater security, no doubt, the waiting-woman of Madame de Saint
Dizier had ordered the hackney-coach to wait for her at a little
distance from the Rue Brise-Miche, in the cloister square. In a few
seconds, the orphans and their conductress reached the carriage.

"Oh, missus!" said the coachman, opening the door; "no offence, I
hope--but you have the most ill-tempered rascal of a dog! Since you put
him into my coach, he has never ceased howling like a roasted cat,
and looks as if he would eat us all up alive!" In fact, My Lord, who
detested solitude, was yelling in the most deplorable manner.

"Be quiet, My Lord! here I am," said Mrs. Grivois; then addressing the
two sisters, she added: "Pray, get in, my dear young ladies."

Rose and Blanche got into the coach. Before she followed them, Mrs.
Grivois was giving to the coachman in a low voice the direction to St.
Mary's Convent, and was adding other instructions, when suddenly the pug
dog, who had growled savagely when the sisters took their seats in
the coach, began to bark with fury. The cause of this anger was clear
enough; Spoil-sport, until now unperceived, had with one bound entered
the carriage.

The pug, exasperated by this boldness, forgetting his ordinary prudence,
and excited to the utmost by rage and ugliness of temper, sprang at his
muzzle, and bit him so cruelly, that, in his turn,