but recollect life is uncertain, and if it
pleases God to summon me, you will have a home no longer. What will you
do then?--for you will never be able to return to your father's house."

"You are very kind, madam," replied I, "but my resolution is formed, and
I will work for my daily bread in any way that I can, rather than
return. Put me but in the way of doing that, and I will for ever bless
you."

"You shall never work for your bread while I live, Valerie, but if I
die, you will have to do something for your own support, and recollect
how friendless you will be, and so young."

"Can I be more friendless than I am at home, madame?" said I, shaking my
head, mournfully.

"Your father deserves punishment for his want of moral courage as well
as your mother," replied Madame d'Albret. "You had better go to bed
now, and to-morrow give me your decision."

"To-morrow will make no change, madame," answered I, "but I fear that
there is no chance of my escape. To-morrow my father will arrive for me
as usual, and--but I have said it. You may preserve my life, madame,
but how I know not," and I threw myself down on the bed in despair.

CHAPTER FOUR.

About an hour afterwards Madame d'Albret, who had left me on the bed
while she went down to her sister, came up again, and spoke to me, but
from weakness occasioned by the loss of blood and from excitement, I
talked for many minutes in the most incoherent manner, and Madame
d'Albret was seriously alarmed. In the meantime the colonel had come
home, and his wife explained what had happened. She led him up to my
room just at the time that I was raving. He took the candle, and looked
at my swelled features, and said, "I should not have recognised the poor
girl. Mort de ma vie! but this is infamous, and Monsieur de Chatenoeuf
is a contemptible coward. I will see him to-morrow morning."

The colonel and his wife then left the room. By this time I had
recovered from my paroxysm. Madame d'Albret came to me, and putting her
face close to mine, said, "Valerie."

"Yes, madame," replied I.

"Are you more composed now? Do you think that you could listen to me?"

"Yes, madame, and thankfully," replied I.

"Well, then, my plan is this. I am sure that the colonel will take you
home to-morrow. Let him do so; in the morning I will tell you how to
behave. To-morrow night you shall escape, and I will be with a _fiacre_
at the corner of the street ready to receive you.