the other, that sprightly
Louison, as she tiptoed to the window. They used to call her
"Tiptoes" at the Hermitage.

The colonel! I remembered she was none other than the Baroness de
Ferre; and thinking of her and of the grateful feeling of the
sheets of soft linen, I fell asleep.

VIII

The doctor came that night, and took out of my back a piece of
flattened lead. It had gone under the flesh, quite half round my
body, next to the ribs, without doing worse than to rake the bone
here and there and weaken me with a loss of blood. I woke awhile
before he came. The baroness and the fat butler were sitting
beside me. She was a big, stout woman of some forty years, with
dark hair and gray eyes, and teeth of remarkable whiteness and
symmetry. That evening, I remember, she was in full dress.

"My poor boy!" said she, in English and in a sympathetic tone, as
she bent over me.

Indeed, my own mother could not have been kinder than that good
woman. She was one that had a heart and a hand for the sick-room.
I told her how I had been hurt and of my ride. She heard me
through with a glow in her eyes.

"What a story!" said she. "What a daredevil! I do not see how it
has been possible for you to live."

She spoke to me always in English of quaint wording and quainter
accent. She seemed not to know that I could speak French.

An impressive French tutor--a fine old fellow, obsequious and
bald-headed--sat by me all night to give me medicine. In the
morning I felt as if I had a new heart in me, and was planning to
mount my horse. I thought I ought to go on about my business, but
I fear I thought more of the young ladies and the possibility of my
seeing them again. The baroness came in after I had a bite to eat.
I told her I felt able to ride,

"You are not able, my child. You cannot ride the horse now," said
she, feeling my brow; "maybe not for a ver' long time. I have a
large house, plenty servant, plenty food. Parbleu! be content. We
shall take good care of you. If there is one message to go to your
chief, you know I shall send it."

I wrote a brief report of my adventure with the British, locating
the scene as carefully as might be, and she sent it by mounted
messenger to "the Burg."

"The young ladies they wish to see you," said the baroness. "They
are kind-hearted; they would like to do what they can. But I tell
them no; they will make you to be very tired."

"On the contrary, it will rest