f our love?"

"I am not so unfeeling as that, my darling, and I have thought of it
longingly many times of late. But I did not like to propose the journey
to you without being sure that it would please you. I did not like to
tear you away from the delights of the court--of which you are the chief
ornament--and take you to that poor, old, half-ruined mansion, the haunt
of rats and owls, where I could not hope to make you even comfortable,
yet, which I prefer, miserable as it is, to the most luxurious palaces;
for it was the home of my ancestors, and the place where I first saw
you, my heart's delight!--spot ever sacred and dear to me, upon which I
should like to erect an altar."

"And I," rejoined Isabelle, "often wonder whether the eglantine in the
garden still blooms, as it did for me."

"It does," said de Sigognac, "I am sure of it--having once been blessed
by your touch, it must be always blooming--even though there be none to
see."

"Ah! my lord, unlike husbands in general, you are more gallant after
marriage than before," Isabelle said, laughingly, yet deeply touched by
his tender words, "and you pay your wife compliments as if she were your
ladylove. And now, since I have ascertained that your wishes accord
with my whim, will it please your lordship to set out for the Chateau
de Sigognac this week? The weather is fine. The great heat of summer is
over, and we can really enjoy the journey. Vallombreuse will go with
us, and I shall take Chiquita. She will be glad to see her own country
again."

The needful preparations were soon made, and the travelling party set
off in high spirits. The journey was rapid and delightful. Relays of
horses had been sent on in advance by Vallombreuse, so that in a few
days they reached the point where the road leading to the Chateau de
Sigognac branched off from the great post-road. It was about two o'clock
of a bright, warm afternoon when the carriage turned off the highway,
and as they got, at the same moment, their first view of the chateau,
de Sigognac could not believe the testimony of his own eyes--he was
bewildered, dazzled, overwhelmed--he no longer recognised the familiar
details which had been so deeply impressed upon his memory. All was
changed, as if by magic. The road, smooth, free from grass and weeds,
and freshly gravelled, had no more ruts; the hedges, neatly trimmed and
properly tended, no longer reached out long, straggling arms to catch
the rare passer-by; the