n good sense. Even her
obstinate hanging on to the belief that Gaston was alive when the
world believed him dead had been justified, and her course had been
most practical during it all. But this new disgust at life, this
fault-finding with her husband, seemed to me lacking in reason. Yet
there was undoubtedly something changed in Gaston's personality. As
this thought passed through my mind she answered it, again as if by
intuition:

"You remember, Babache, you always told me you loved Gaston from the
moment you beheld him. But you don't love him now. You have not loved
him since his return."

Oh, what a misfortune it is to be too quick of wit!

Francezka then rose and said to me:

"I return now to my guests. Think not that I have uttered to any other
human being what I have said to you. But I have looked my last on
happiness. I do not love you any the less, Babache. As you were my
chief consolation in that dreadful time of waiting, so now that
Destiny has played me this shabby trick in giving me back the shadow
of happiness and withholding the substance, I still look to you for
comfort. Remember, whoever wearies me at Capello, you never will. Not
since that first hour we met in this old garden, when you saw me in
the beginning of my career of headstrong folly, have I ever beheld
your honest face without pleasure."

I returned to the ballroom, and the first thing I saw was Francezka
dancing the wildest _branle_ I ever saw with the most graceful abandon
imaginable. I concluded that all women were singular beings, in which
my master agreed, when I made the observation to him; and some persons
said that Count Saxe had great experience with the sex.

CHAPTER XXXII

IN SNUFF-COLORED CLOTHES

I was much on the road between Paris and Chambord for the next month.
It was true that Francezka and Gaston had declined with thanks to
visit Chambord that year on account of returning to Capello, but they
very cordially invited Count Saxe to be their guest some time during
the summer, and Count Saxe, of course, included Captain Babache. About
that time we knew for a certainty that Marshal Belle-Isle would take
an army of observation across the Rhine in August, and my master would
be given command of the vanguard. So it was arranged that on our way
to Fort Louis, where the crossing was to be made, we should make a
detour and visit Francezka and Gaston at Capello.

It was in April that one afternoon, being at leisure,