so brave a
man.

"Voila," she said, "but tell us, my son, what is in the letter?"

"Not yet," was the reply. "It is to be read to all when they are
assembled. In the mean time--"

He did not finish the sentence in words, but by gesture conveyed that
the missive, now folded and placed in his breast-pocket, was only to
be obtained bespattered with his life's blood. And the Abbe wiped his
clammy brow with some satisfaction that it should be thus removed from
his own timorous custody.

Albert de Chantonnay was looking expectantly at the door, for he had
heard footsteps, and now he bowed gravely to a very old gentleman, a
notary of the town, who entered the room with a deep obeisance to the
Comtesse. Close on the notary's heels came others. Some were in riding
costume, and came from a distance.

One sprightly lady wore evening dress, only partially concealed by a
cloak. She hurried in with a nod for Albert de Chantonnay, and a kiss
for the Comtesse. Her presence had the immediate effect of imparting
an air of practical common-sense energy to the assembly, which it had
hitherto lacked. There was nothing of the old regime in this lady, who
seemed to over-ride etiquette, and cheerfully ignore the dramatic side
of the proceedings.

"Is it not wonderful?" she whispered aloud, after the manner of any
modern lady at one of those public meetings in which they take so
large a part with so small a result in these later days. "Is it not
wonderful?" And her French, though pure enough, was full and round--the
French of an English tongue. "I have had a long letter from Dormer
telling me all about it. Oh--" And she broke off, silenced by the dark
frown of Albert de Chantonnay, to which her attention had been forcibly
directed by his mother. "I have been dining with Madame de Rathe," she
went on, irrepressibly, changing the subject in obedience to Albert de
Chantonnay's frown. "The Vicomtesse bids me make her excuses. She feared
an indigestion, so will be absent to-night."

"Ah!" returned the Comtesse de Chantonnay. "It is not that. I happen to
know that the Vicomtesse de Rathe has the digestion of a schoolboy. It
is because she has no confidence in Albert. But we shall see--we shall
see. It is not for the nobility of Louis Philippe to--to have a poor
digestion."

And the Comtesse de Chantonnay made a gesture and a meaning grimace
which would have been alarming enough had her hand and face been less
dimpled with good nature.

T