forty-five to forty-six years of age, short,
and rather stout, with a high color, easy in his movements, and
displaying in every gesture a certain air of high breeding and command.

The second, who followed slowly, was short, and remarkably thin. His
face, though not precisely ugly, was very disagreeable, although bearing
the evidences of a keen intellect. He seemed to feel the cold, and
followed his companion, wrapped up in an ample cloak.

The first of these two made his way up the staircase with the air of a
man well acquainted with the locality. Passing through a large
antechamber containing several nuns, who bowed to the ground as he
passed, he ran rather than walked to a reception-room, which, it must be
confessed, bore but little trace of that austerity which is ordinarily
ascribed to the interior of a cloister.

The other, who followed leisurely, was saluted almost as humbly by the
nuns.

"And now," said the first, "wait here and warm yourself, while I go to
her, and in ten minutes I will make an end of all these abuses you
mention: if she deny, and I want proof, I will call you."

"Ten minutes, monseigneur," replied the man in the cloak; "in two hours
your highness will not have even broached the subject of your visit. Oh!
the Abbess de Chelles is a clever woman!"

So saying, he stretched himself out in an easy chair, which he had drawn
near the fire, and rested his thin legs on the fender.

"Yes, yes," replied he who had been addressed as "your highness;" "I
know, and if I could forget it, you take care to remind me of it often
enough. Why did you bring me here to-day through all this wind and
snow?"

"Because you would not come yesterday, monseigneur."

"Yesterday, it was impossible; I had an appointment with Lord Stair at
five o'clock."

"In a house in the Rue des Bons Enfants. My lord does not live any
longer, then, at the English embassy?"

"Abbe, I had forbidden you to follow me."

"Monseigneur, it is my duty to disobey you."

"Well, then, disobey; but let me tell stories at my pleasure, without
your having the impertinence to show me that you know it, just for the
sake of proving the efficiency of your police."

"Monseigneur may rest easy in future--I will believe anything!"

"I will not promise as much in return, abbe, for here I think you have
made a mistake."

"Monseigneur, I know what I said, and I repeat it."

"But look! no noise, no light, perfect quiet, your account is
incorr