ady either, or she would
not so easily have broken one contract, or forgotten one lover!"

"Hush, hush, Matthieu!" cried Raoul, "you forget that we were mere
children at that time; such early troth plightings are foolish
ceremonials at the best; beside, do you not see that you are
condemning me also as well as the lady?"

"Oh, that is different--that is quite different!" replied the old
steward, "gentlemen may be permitted to take some little liberties
which with ladies are not allowable. But that a young demoiselle
should break her contract in such wise is disgraceful."

"Well, well, we will not argue it to-night, Matthieu," said the young
soldier, rising and looking out of the great oriel window over the
sunshiny park; "I believe I will go and walk out for an hour or two
and refresh my recollections of old times. It is a lovely afternoon as
I ever beheld in France or elsewhere."

And with the word he took up his rapier which lay on a slab near the
table at which he had been sitting, and hung it to his belt, and then
throwing on his plumed hat carelessly, without putting on his cloak,
strolled leisurely out into the glorious summer evening.

For a little while he loitered on the esplanade, gazing out toward the
sea, the ridgy waves of which were sparkling like emeralds tipped with
diamonds in the grand glow of the setting sun. But ere long he turned
thence with a sigh, called up perhaps by some fancied similitude
between that bright and boundless ocean, desolate and unadorned even
by a single passing sail, and his own course of life so desert,
friendless and uncompanioned.

Thence he strolled listlessly through the fine garden, inhaling the
rare odors of the roses, hundreds of which bloomed on every side of
him, there in low bushes, there in trim standards, and not a few
climbing over tall trellices and bowery alcoves in one mass of living
bloom. He saw the happy swallow darting and wheeling to and fro
through the pellucid azure, in pursuit of their insect prey. He heard
the rich mellow notes of the blackbirds and thrushes, thousands and
thousands of which were warbling incessantly in the cool shadow of the
yew and holly hedges. But his diseased and unhappy spirit took no
delight in the animated sounds, or summer-teeming sights of rejoicing
nature. No, the very joy and merriment, which seemed to pervade all
nature, animate or inanimate around him, while he himself had no
present joys to elevate, no future promis