stay. My friend insisted that I should
go out with him to shoot, believing that such was the only amusement I
was likely to care for; but the preserves were full of game, and we had
to do little more than stand still and shoot the birds as they were put
up by the dogs. We returned to dinner, and as La Touche gave me the
choice, I preferred a stroll in the garden with him and his sister to a
more extended excursion.

The following days were spent in the same delightful manner. Every hour
I became more and more attached to Sophie. I could not but feel a
desire that she should return my affection. I forgot my poverty, and
that until I could obtain my promotion, I should have nothing on which
to support a wife, as the Ballinahone property had been entailed on my
brother. I ought, I knew, to have assumed an indifference to the young
lady, and speedily taken my departure, and I was in consequence much to
blame. Still La Touche should not have invited me to the chateau; but
in throwing me into the society of so charming a being as his sister, he
did no perhaps think of the consequences, or, if he did, fancied that I
was possessed of wealth, or at least a competency.

We were living all the time a peaceful secluded life, for we never went
beyond the walled grounds of the chateau, and few visitors came to the
house. We heard occasionally, however, what was going forward both in
Paris and other parts of the country. Matters were growing more and
more serious. Risings had occurred in various places, and lives had
been lost. An army of fishwives, and other women of the lowest orders,
had marched to Versailles, and threatened the King and Marie Antoinette,
if food was not given them.

We were one evening seated at supper when a servant rushed into the
room, with terror depicted in his countenance.

"Oh, monsieur! oh, madame!" he exclaimed, "I have just received notice
that a vast array of people are marching this way, threatening to
destroy all the chateaux in the neighbourhood, and the Chateau La Touche
in particular. They declare that you are an aristocrat."

"Are you certain that this is true?" exclaimed La Touche, starting from
his seat.

"If monsieur will come to the northern tower, he will hear the voices of
the people in the distance," replied the servant.

"Do not be alarmed, my mother and sister," said La Touche. "The report
may be exaggerated, but it is as well to be prepared. We will close all
the l