er
take us away with her. Against this the baroness cried out, and then the
Countess Madelaine said to us:

"Well, you will come spend the day with me day after to-morrow, will you?
I shall invite only young people. May I come for you?"

Ah, that day! how I remember it!... Madame de la Houssaye was fully five
or six years older than Madame Carpentier, for she was the mother of four
boys, the eldest of whom was fully twelve.[19] Her house was, like Madame
du Clozel's, a single rez-de-chaussee surmounted by a mansard.... From
the drawing-room she conducted us to a room in the rear of the house at
the end of the veranda [galerie], where ... a low window let into a garden
crossed and re-crossed with alleys of orange and jasmine. Several lofty
magnolias filled the air with the fragrance of their great white
flowers....

XIV.

"POOR LITTLE ALIX!"

Hardly had we made a few steps into the room when a young girl rose and
advanced, supported on the arm of a young man slightly overdressed. His
club and pigeon-wings were fastened with three or four pins of gold, and
his white-powdered queue was wrapped with a black velvet ribbon shot with
silver. The heat was so great that he had substituted silk for velvet, and
his dress-coat, breeches, and long vest were of pearl-gray silk, changing
to silver, with large silver buttons. On the lace frill of his embroidered
shirt shone three large diamonds, on his cravat was another, and his
fingers were covered with rings.[20] The young girl embraced us with
ceremony, while her companion bowed profoundly. She could hardly have
been over sixteen or seventeen. One could easily guess by her dress that
the pretty creature was the slave of fashion.

"Madame du Rocher," said Charles du Clozel, throwing a wicked glance upon
her.

"Madame!" I stammered.

"Impossible!" cried Suzanne.

"Don't listen to him!" interrupted the young lady, striking Charles's
fingers with her fan. "He is a wretched falsifier. I am called Tonton de
Blanc."

"The widow du Rocher!" cried Olivier, from the other side.

"Ah, this is too much!" she exclaimed. "If you don't stop these ridiculous
jokes at once I'll make Neville call you out upon the field of battle." ...
But a little while afterward Celeste whispered in my ear that her
brothers had said truly. At thirteen years Tonton, eldest daughter of
Commandant Louis de Blanc and sister of Chevalier de Blanc, had been
espoused to Dr. du Rocher, at least forty y