not, though a monarch bids,
So I love to wake ere break of day.

The Cure woke with a start. After a short moment of anxiety he breathed
again. Evidently no one had noticed that he had been asleep. He collected
himself, stretched himself prudently, slowly, he was saved!

A quarter of an hour later the two sisters accompanied the Cure and Jean
to the little gate of the park, which opened into the village a few yards
from the vicarage; they had nearly reached the gate when Bettina said all
at once to Jean:

"Ah! all this time I have had a question to ask you. This morning when we
arrived, we met on the way a slight young man, with a fair mustache, he
was riding a black horse, and bowed to us as we passed."

"It was Paul de Lavardens, one of my friends; he has already had the
honor of being introduced to you, but rather vaguely, and his ambition is
to be presented again."

"Well, you shall bring him one of these days," said Mrs. Scott.

"After the 25th!" cried Bettina. "Not before! not before! No one till
then; till then we will see no one but you, Monsieur Jean. But you, it is
very extraordinary, and I don't quite know how it has happened, you don't
seem anybody to us. The compliment is perhaps not very well turned, but
do not make a mistake, it is a compliment. I intended to be excessively
amiable in speaking to you thus."

"And so you are, Miss Percival."

"So much the better if I have been so fortunate as to make myself
understood. Good-by, Monsieur Jean--till tomorrow!"

Mrs. Scott and Miss Percival returned slowly toward the castle.

"And now, Susie," said Bettina, "scold me well, I expect it, I have
deserved it."

"Scold you! Why?"

"You are going to say, I am sure, that I have been too familiar with that
young man."

"No, I shall not say that. From the first day that young man has made the
most favorable impression upon me; he inspires me with perfect
confidence."

"And so he does me."

"I am persuaded that it would be well for us both to try to make a friend
of him."

"With all my heart, as far as I am concerned, so much the more as I have
seen many young men since we have lived in France. Oh! yes, I have,
indeed! Well! this is the first, positively the first, in whose eyes I
have not clearly read, 'Oh, how glad I should be to marry the millions of
that little person!' That was written in the eyes of all the others, but
not in his eyes. Now, here we are at home again. Good-night,
Su