elinville
was residing with her aunt, and that, having come to visit her father,
he had detained the ladies to supper, hoping to enliven the sojourn of
his _beaux cousins_.

Madame de Selinville, looking anxiously at Berenger, hoped she saw him
in better health. He replied, stiffly, that he was perfectly well;
and then, by way of safety, repaired to the society of the Abbess, who
immediately began plying him with questions about England, its court,
and especially the secret marriage of Queen Elisabeth and '_ce_ Comte
de Dudley,' on which she was so minutely informed as to put him to the
blush. Then she was very curious about the dispersed convents, and how
many of the nuns had married; and she seemed altogether delighted to
have secured the attention of a youth from the outer world. His soul at
first recoiled from her as one of Eustacie's oppressors, and from her
unconvent-like talk; and yet he could not but think her a good-natured
person, and wonder if she could rally have been hard upon his poor
little wife. And she, who had told Eustacie she would strangle with her
own hands the scion of the rival house!--she, like most women, was
much more bitter against an unseen being out of reach, than towards a
courteously-mannered, pale, suffering-looking youth close beside her.
She had enough affection for Eustacie to have grieved much at her
wanderings and at her fate; and now the sorrow-stricken look that by no
effort could be concealed really moved her towards the youth bereaved
husband. Besides, were not all feuds on the point of being made up by
the excellent device concocted between her brother and her niece?

Meantime, Philip was in raptures with the kindness of the beautiful
Madame de Selinville. He, whom the Mistresses Walsingham treated as a
mere clumsy boy, was promoted by her manner to be a man and a cavalier.
He blushed up to the roots of his hair and looked sheepish whenever one
of her entrancing smiles lit upon him; but then she inquired after his
brother so cordially, she told him so openly how brilliant had been
Berenger's career at the court, she regretted so heartily their present
danger and detention, and promised so warmly to use her interest with
Queen Catherine, that in the delight of being so talked to, he
forgot his awkwardness and spoke freely and confidentially, maybe too
confidentially, for he caught Berenger frowning at him, and made a
sudden halt in his narrative, disconcerted but very angry wit