ooked very well, only it had been
stuffed with sage and onions, and Monsieur said, with pride, that they
had thought it would be nice to give Mademoiselle Britton and her niece
_one_ English dish, in case they did not like the other things! It was
during this course that Barbara's gravity was a little tried, not so
much because of the idea of chicken with sage and onions, as because of
the stolidity of her aunt's expression--the girl knowing that if there
was one thing that lady was particular about, it was the correct
cooking of poultry.

There were various other items on the menu, and it was so evident that
their host and his eldest son had taken a great deal of trouble over
the preparation of the meal, that the visitors were really touched, and
did their best to show their appreciation of the attentions paid them.
In that they were successful, and when they left the house the widower
and his sons were wreathed in smiles. But when they had got to a safe
distance Aunt Anne exclaimed, "What a silly man not to keep a servant!"

"Oh, but aunt," Barbara explained, "he thinks he could not manage a
servant, and he is really most devoted to his children."

"It's all nonsense about the servant," Miss Britton retorted. "How can
a man keep house?"

Nevertheless, when Mademoiselle Loire began to question her rather
curiously as to the dinner, she said they had been entertained very
nicely, and that monsieur must be an extremely clever man to manage
things so well.

One other visit Barbara made before leaving St. Servan, and that was to
say good-bye to the bath-boy. It had needed some persuasion on her
part to gain her aunt's permission for this visit.

"But, aunt, dear," Barbara said persuasively, "he helped me with Alice,
and lost his place because of it. It would be so _very_ unkind to go
away without seeing how they are getting on."

"Well, I suppose you must go, but if I had known what a capacity you
had for getting entangled in such plots, Barbara, really I should have
been afraid to trust you alone here. It was time I came out to put
matters right."

"Yes, aunt," Barbara agreed sedately, but with a twinkle in her eyes,
"I really think it was," and she went to get ready for her visit to the
bath-boy.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE END OF THE STORY.

When the day for parting came Barbara found that it cost her many pangs
to leave them all--Mademoiselle Vire first and foremost, and the others
in less degree, for