h her myself, and sat up all that long night
awake by the fire, ready to receive her when she came home. I will not
weary you, sir, by repeating all I was thinking of the while. It made
me go to sleep myself, and I only waked towards morning at the noise of
the sledge bells. When I came running down, the count was already
leading his countess up to her room. Neither of them seemed tired at
all; they looked as bright and happy as if something particular had
occurred to please them. When he said good night, he took her tenderly
in his arms,--before me, sir, and all the servants,--held her there for
a minute, as if he had forgotten the whole world besides. I saw how
much moved she was, and I followed her into her room to help her to
undress. As soon as we were alone, she fell upon my neck in tears, and
as she always had treated me as a mother, she told me all that had
taken place. They had created a great sensation, when they came in,
later than the rest. The duchess, who was a very haughty woman, had not
said a word, when the count led her up and presented her as his wife.
But the young duke had been excessively courteous, and had opened the
ball with her, and had distinguished her more than all the other
ladies. She had felt completely at her ease, and I could easily see
that she had been the reigning beauty."

"But to her great alarm, she had come upon that rude English lord,
standing at one of the card-tables, and only on seeing her husband so
indifferent and calm, had she been able to recover her self-possession.
After one of the dances, the count had led her into another room to
take some refreshment; and there he had introduced some gentlemen to
her. Meanwhile the Englishman had come in with some ladies, unobserved;
and he had raised his eye-glass with a fixed stare at her, and had said
quite out loud: 'For a chamber-maid, she is not without tournure.'
There had been a dead silence; the count had changed color, and soon
after he had said, in a tone of the greatest indifference: 'Look there,
Gabrielle, don't you see a striking likeness between that gentleman who
has just come in, and that illbred person who was once so rude to you,
and was served with a taste of my horsewhip and my pistols as the
consequence? I rather think the horse-whip would have been enough;
people who know him are apt to think him hardly worth the powder and
shot.'"

"You can fancy, sir, how my poor countess felt when he said this.
However, sh