fication at the intelligence you have
communicated, and his desire to serve your lordship, appear to have
somewhat bewildered him. He was always very much attached to
Mademoiselle de Gramont."

"Attached to her? Certainly! _Certainly!_" replied the count. "Though
she did not always think so! I was devotedly attached to her when she
imagined quite the contrary! This is my hat, I believe."

He took up Lord Linden's.

"I beg pardon,--_that_, I think is mine," replied his lordship; and
then, indicating the one upon the table which Count Tristan apparently
did not see, asked, "Is not this yours?"

"I suppose so; it cannot be any one's else; there are only two of us. I
wish you a good-morning."

With a forced, unnatural laugh, he left the room.

Count Tristan's deportment, in general, was almost as calm and stately
as that of his august mother; though it was only a weak reflex of hers;
accordingly the change in his demeanor surprised Lord Linden
unpleasantly; but he took leave of the countess without endeavoring to
solve an enigma to which he had no clew.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

A SHOCK.

Count Tristan, on reaching Madeleine's residence was ushered into her
boudoir. He found her reclining upon the sofa, with a book in her hand.
She had not entirely recovered from her indisposition, and wisely
thought that one of the most effectual modes of battling against illness
was to divert the mind: an invaluable medicine, too little in vogue
among the suffering, yet calculated to produce marvellous amelioration
of physical pain. As all _matter_ exists from, and is influenced by,
spiritual causes, the happy workings of this mental ministry are very
comprehensible. Madeleine invariably found medicinal and restorative
properties in the pages of an interesting and healthful-toned volume
which would draw her out of the contemplation of her own ailments. She
had trained herself, when the prostration of her faculties or other
circumstances rendered it impossible for her to read, to lie still and
reflect upon all the blessings that were accorded to her, to count them
over, one by one, and _compel_ herself to estimate each at its full
value. In this manner she successfully counteracted the depression and
unrest that attend bodily disease, and often succeeded in lifting her
mind so far above its disordered mortal medium that she was hardly
conscious of suffering, which was nevertheless very real. Sceptical
reader! you smile in doubt