s engaged to an officer of
dragoons, the same Marcel d'Etaples who had acted with her in Scylla and
Charybdis, and Madame Ray, being a watchful mother, was not long in
perceiving that Marcel came to pay court to Isabelle too frequently at
the hour for her music-lesson. Madame d'Etaples on her part had made a
similar discovery, and both judged that the presence of so beautiful a
girl, in Jacqueline's position, might not be desirable in these
interviews between lovers.

When Giselle, as she was about to leave town for the country in July,
begged Jacqueline, who seemed run down and out of spirits, to come and
stay with her, the poor child was very glad to accept the invitation. Her
pupils were leaving her one after another, she could not understand why,
and she was bored to death in the convent, whose strict rules were drawn
tighter on her than before, for the nuns had begun to understand her
better, and to discover the real worldliness of her character. At the
same time, that retreat within these pious walls no longer seemed like
paradise to Jacqueline; her transition from the deepest crape to the
softer tints of half mourning, seemed to make her less of an angel in
their eyes. They said to each other that Mademoiselle de Nailles was
fanciful, and fancies are the very last things wanted in a convent, for
fancies can brave bolts, and make their escape beyond stone walls,
whatever means may be taken to clip their wings.

"She does not seem like the same person," cried the good sisters, who had
been greatly edified at first by her behavior, and who were almost ready
now to be shocked at her.

The course of things was coming back rapidly into its natural channel; in
obedience to the law which makes a tree, apparently dead, put forth
shoots in springtime. And that inevitable re-budding and reblossoming was
beautiful to see in this young human plant. M. de Talbrun, Jacqueline's
host, could not fail to perceive it. At first he had been annoyed with
Giselle for giving the invitation, having a habit of finding fault with
everything he had not ordered or suggested, by virtue of his marital
authority, and also because he hated above all things, as he said, to
have people in his house who were "wobegones." But in a week he was quite
reconciled to the idea of keeping Mademoiselle de Nailles all the summer
at the Chateau de Fresne. Never had Giselle known him to take so much
trouble to be amiable, and indeed Jacqueline saw him much m