was terribly uneasy. He concluded the secret had transpired
through female indiscretion. Then they all tortured themselves as to the
old man's intention. But what seemed most likely was, that he was with
them to prevent a clandestine marriage by his bare presence, without
making a scene and shocking Josephine's pride: and if so, was he there
by his own impulse? No, it was rather to be feared that all this was
done by order of the baroness. There was a finesse about it that smacked
of a feminine origin, and the baroness was very capable of adopting such
a means as this, to spare her own pride and her favorite daughter's.
"The clandestine" is not all sugar. A more miserable party never went
along, even to a wedding.

After waiting a long time for the doctor to declare himself, they turned
desperate, and began to chatter all manner of trifles. This had a good
effect: it roused Aubertin from his reverie, and presently he gave them
the following piece of information: "I told you the other day that a
nephew of mine was just dead; a nephew I had not seen for many years.
Well, my friends, I received last night a hasty summons to his funeral."

"At Frejus?"

"No, at Paris. The invitation was so pressing, that I was obliged to go.
The letter informed me, however, that a diligence passes through Frejus,
at eleven o'clock, for Paris. I heard you say you were going to
Frejus; so I packed up a few changes of linen, and my MS., my work on
entomology, which at my last visit to the capital all the publishers
were mad enough to refuse: here it is. Apropos, has Jacintha put my bag
into the carriage?"

On this a fierce foot-search, and the bag was found. Meantime, Josephine
leaned back in her seat with a sigh of thankfulness. She was more intent
on not being found out than on being married. But Camille, who was more
intent on being married than on not being found out, was asking himself,
with fury, how on earth they should get rid of Aubertin in time.

Well, of course, under such circumstances as these the diligence did
not come to its time, nor till long after; and all the while, they were
waiting for it they were failing their rendezvous with the mayor, and
making their rendezvous with the curate impossible. But, above all,
there was the risk of one or other of those friends coming up and
blurting all out, taking for granted that the doctor must be in their
confidence, or why bring him.

At last, at half-past eleven o'clock, to the