ve, to whom invisible cords drew him across the valley!

"No, I cannot!" Angelot said to himself. He waited for no second
thoughts, but jumped down into the field beyond the bank, and did not
even trouble himself to keep in the shadow while with long light
strides he ran towards Lancilly.

Two hours later Monsieur Joseph was pacing up and down, wildly
impatient, in front of his house. Over his head, Riette listened behind
closed shutters, and heard nothing but his quick tramp, and an angry
exclamation now and then against Angelot. At last Monsieur Joseph
stopped short and listened. The dogs barked, but he silenced them; then
came a swinging light and two figures hurrying along the shadowy
footpath from La Mariniere. Another instant, and Urbain's strong voice
rang through the night that brooded over Les Chouettes.

"Joseph, you incorrigible old Chouan! what have you done with my boy?"

CHAPTER XXIII

A DANCE WITH GENERAL RATONEAU

All this time, and lately with her son's energetic help, Madame de
Sainfoy had been arranging her rooms in the most approved fashion of the
day. The new furniture was far less beautiful than the old, and far less
suited to the character of the house; still, like everything belonging
to the Empire, it had a severe magnificence. The materials were mahogany
and gilded bronze; the forms were classical, lyres, urns, winged
sphinxes everywhere. In the large salon the walls were hung with yellow
silk instead of the old, despised, but precious tapestries, the long
curtains that swept the floor were yellow silk, with broad bands of red
and yellow and a heavy fringe of red and yellow balls. These fashions
were repeated in each room in different colours, green, blue, red; a
smaller salon, Madame de Sainfoy's favourite, was hung with a peculiar
green flecked with gold; and for the chairs in this room she, Helene,
Mademoiselle Moineau, and the young girls were working a special
tapestry with wreaths of grapes or asters, lyres, Roman heads which
suggested Napoleon. Certain unaccountable stains on this fine work
brought a smile long years afterwards into the lovely eyes of Helene.

Paper and paint, innovations at Lancilly, had much to do in beautifying
the old place. Dark rooms were well lit up by a white paper with a broad
border of red and yellow twisted ribbons. Old stone chimneypieces,
window-sills, great solid shutters, were covered thick with yellow
paint.

The ideas of Captain Georges