mine, one of the
prettiest and nicest persons on earth, with whom he ran away some six
months since, fancying her to be--"

"Valerie!" exclaimed Caroline, blushing fiery red.

"Caroline!" replied I, quietly.

"What _were_ you going to say?"

"Fancying her to be a very great heiress," I continued; "but finding her
to be a far better thing, a delightful, beautiful, and excellent wife."

"Happy man!" said de Chavannes, with a half sigh.

"Why do you say so, Count?"

"To have married one for whom you vouch so strongly. Is that any common
fortune?"

"It is rather common, Count, just of late I mean," said Caroline,
laughing. "You do not know that among Valerie's other accomplishments
she is the greatest little match-maker in existence. She marries off
all her friends as fast--oh! you cannot think how fast."

"I _hope_, I mean to say I _think_," he corrected himself, not without
some little confusion, "that she is not quite so bad as you make her
out. She has not yet made any match for herself, I believe. No, no. I
don't believe she is quite so bad."

"I would not be too sure, Count, were I you," she answered, desirous of
paying me off a little for some of the badinage with which I had treated
her. "These ladies, with so many strings to their bow--"

It was now my time to exclaim "Caroline!" and I did so not without
giving some little emphasis of severity to my tone, for I really thought
she was going beyond the limits of propriety, if not of _persiflage_;
and I will do her the justice to say that she felt it herself, for she
blushed very much as I spoke, and was at once silent.

The awkwardness of this pause was fortunately broken by the return of
Auguste and Lionel at a sharp canter; for the review was now entirely at
an end, and they had now for the first moment remembered that, having
promised to return in a quarter of an hour, they had suffered two hours
or more to elapse, and that we were probably all alone.

Caroline immediately began to rally Lionel and Auguste; the former, with
whom she was very intimate, pretty severely, for their want of gallantry
in leaving us all alone and unprotected in such a crowd.

"Not the least danger--not the least!" replied Lionel hastily. "Had we
not known that, we should have returned long ago."

"In proof of which _no_ danger, we have been all frightened nearly to
death; Mademoiselle Valerie de Chatenoeuf has been grievously affronted,
and I am not sure but sh