nd for me, I assure you! He would
do much better for Sophie, or Elisee, if he ever should see and like
either of them."

"Always busy for others, Valerie! And for yourself--when will you think
for yourself?"

"I think I _have_ thought, and done, too, for myself, pretty well. You
forget my twenty-five hundred _livres de rente_."

"But twenty-five hundred _livres de rente_ are not a husband, Valerie."

"I am not so sure about that. I daresay they would buy one at a pinch,"
I replied, laughing; "at least, in our _poor_ country, where everyone
you meet in society is not a millionaire, like those cold islanders."

"I think you have grown almost as cold yourself, little sister, and as
calculating."

"To be sure I have," I made answer; "and to punish me, Monsieur Gironac
swears that I shall die a sour old maid."

"And what do you say?"

"An old maid very likely; but not a sour one, at all events. But, hark!
there is a carriage at the door--let me see who it is."

And I jumped up, and running to the window, saw the Selwyn liveries, and
Lionel, _en cavalier_, beside the carriage-window.

In a moment, the steps were let down; and Caroline speedily made her
appearance, commissioned, as she said, by her mother-in-law, to take
immediate possession both of myself and Auguste, and to bring us down
straightway to Kew. Her husband, she said, would certainly have called
on Monsieur de Chatenoeuf, and the Judge also, but that the courts being
all in session, they were both so completely occupied, that, except
after dinner, they had not an hour of the twenty-four disengaged.

She was commanded, moreover, she added, to invite Monsieur and Madame
Gironac to dine at Kew on the following day. Me, moreover, and Auguste
she was to carry down forthwith in the carriage.

"So now," she said, "get you gone, Valerie, and pack up as quickly as
possible all that you require to make yourself beautiful for a week, at
least."

"And what do you say to all this, messieurs?" said I, laughingly, to my
brother and Lionel; "for there is much more necessity to consult you
lords of the creation, as you call yourselves, who are in reality vainer
by half, and care five times as much about your toilettes as we much
calumniated women--what do you say about this summary packing up and
taking flight--can it be accomplished?"

"It _is_ accomplished," replied Lionel; "in so far at least that I have
promised on my own part, and for Monsieur Auguste