dress and carried a
couteau-de-chasse and a rifle, the latter, which was loaded, he very
carefully placed on the mantel-piece. During these various proceedings,
Eveline had already in her way formed an acquaintance with the third
stranger, who seemed to be her favorite, for she gave him her
handkerchief to wipe the rain from his face, and offered him some
fruit, which he smilingly declined, and after looking at him for some
time, she said, "Where have you left your hat?" "The storm without has
carried it off from me," said the young stranger, "and blew it far, far
away, so that I could not catch it again."

"It must have been drole enough," said Eveline, laughing, "you after
the hat, the storm after you, and the rain after the storm, you could
not overtake your hat, but the rain and storm overtook you."

The Lord of Beauvais drew near, and said, "You entertain this stranger
already?" "Does he not look good and kind;" exclaimed the child, "just
like the schoolmaster in the village, who teaches me to read, but who
is obliged to limp already with his young, thin legs."

"Behave politely, my child," said the Counsellor kindly, and he put
aside her fair locks from her forehead. He examined his guest while he
was paying the usual compliments. The young stranger appeared to be
about sixteen, or seventeen years of age, he was something below the
middle height, his figure was delicately formed, but as the child had
said, the expression of his countenance was amiability itself. A slight
tinge of red coloured his thin cheeks; his eyes were of the lightest
blue, and had acquired by a mark on the right eye-lid, a very peculiar
expression; short, fair hair lay thick and smooth, over his dazzlingly
pure white forehead: his voice had something effeminate in it from its
high pitch, and from his whole bearing and bashfulness of manner, one
might have easily taken him for a maiden in disguise.

"I came over to day from Pont-du-gard, and intended to proceed to
Montpellier, when this storm overtook me fortunately just in front of
your door, my Lord Counsellor," said the vicar approaching again. "I
must confess, I should not have thought, that there could be such a
building as this aqueduct, if my own eyes had not convinced me of it. I
doubt that the Coloseum at Rome, or the stupendous church of St. Peter
could have produced so great an impression on my mind, as these
majestic, vaulted arches, and these pillars one over the other, which