tion.

"No; I can not tell," she replied at last, in an almost inaudible voice.

"Truly?" he exclaimed, with an expression of astonishment, in which was a
certain amount of secret satisfaction; "you can not tell whom I mean? You
have never thought of the person of whom I am speaking in that light?"

"No; who is that person?"

She had raised her eyes toward his, and they shone with a deep,
mysterious light.

"It is Claudet Sejournant," replied Julien, very gently; and in an
altered tone.

The glow that had illumined the dark orbs of the young girl faded away,
her eyelids dropped, and her countenance became as rigid as before; but
Julien did not notice anything. The words he had just uttered had cost
him too much agony, and he dared not look at his companion, lest he
should behold her joyful surprise, and thereby aggravate his suffering.

"Ah!" said Reine, coldly, "in that case, why did not Claudet come himself
and state his own case?"

"His courage failed him at the last moment--and so--"

"And so," continued she, with sarcastic bitterness of tone, "you took
upon yourself to speak for him?"

"Yes; I promised him I would plead his cause. I was sure, moreover, that
I should not have much difficulty in gaining the suit. Claudet has loved
you for a long time. He is good-hearted, and a fine fellow to look at.
And as to worldly advantages, his position is now equal to your own. I
have made over to him, by legal contract, the half of his father's
estate. What answer am I to take back?"

He spoke with difficulty in broken sentences, without turning his eyes
toward Mademoiselle Vincart. The silence that followed his last question
seemed to him unbearable, and the contrasting chirping of the noisy
grasshoppers, and the buzzing of the flies in the quiet sunny garden,
resounded unpleasantly in his ears.

Reine remained speechless. She was disconcerted and well-nigh overpowered
by the unexpected announcement, and her brain seemed unable to bear the
crowd of tumultuous and conflicting emotions which presented themselves.
Certainly, she had already suspected that Claudet had a secret liking for
her, but she never had thought of encouraging the feeling. The avowal of
his hopes neither surprised nor hurt her; that which pained her was the
intervention of Julien, who had taken in hand the cause of his relative.
Was it possible that this same M. de Buxieres, who had made so audacious
a display of his tender feeling in the hut