d aloud: "Oh! he will not deign to eat! O Lord! what will my
mistress say, if the child should fall ill!"

The next morning I had scarcely begun to dress, when a young officer
entered my room. He was of small size, with irregular features, but his
sun-burned face had remarkable vivacity. "Pardon me," said he in French,
"that I come so unceremoniously to make your acquaintance. I learned
yesterday of your arrival, and the desire of seeing at last a human
face so took possession of me that I could wait no longer. You will
understand this when you shall have lived here some time!"

I easily guessed that he was the officer dismissed from the Guards for
the affair of the duel--Alexis Chabrine. He was very intelligent; his
conversation was sprightly and interesting. He described with impulse
and gayety the Commandant's family, society, and in general the whole
country round. I was laughing heartily, when Ignatius, the same
old pensioner whom I had seen mending his uniform in the Captain's
waiting-room, entered, and gave me an invitation to dinner from Basilia
Mironoff, the Captain's wife. Alexis declared that he would accompany
me.

Approaching the Commandant's house we saw on the square some twenty
little old pensioners, with long queues and three-cornered hats.
These old men were drawn up in line of battle. Before them stood
the Commandant, a fresh and vigorous old man of high stature, in
dressing-gown and cotton cap. As soon as he saw us, he approached,
addressed me a few affable words, and then resumed his drill. We
were going to stay to see the manoeuvering, but he begged us to go on
immediately to the house, promising to join us at once; "for," said he,
"there is really nothing to be seen here."

Basilia received us kindly, and with simplicity, treating me like an
old acquaintance. The pensioner and the maid Polacca were laying the
table-cloth.

"What is the matter with my dear Ivan Mironoff, today, that he is so
long instructing his troops?" said the mistress. "Polacca, go and
bring him to dinner. And where is my child, Marie?" Scarcely had she
pronounced this name, than a young girl about sixteen entered the
room;--a rosy, round-faced girl, wearing her hair in smooth bandeaux
caught behind her ears, which were red with modesty and shyness. She did
not please me very much at the first glance; I was prejudiced against
her by Alexis, who had described the Captain's daughter to me as a fool.
Marie seated herself in