ful,
that you have a voice and hand, a turn of the arm--that you have
the manner Parisienne--Jeanne, is it not so?"

"But, yes, Madame, and indeed more. I find that young man of
excellent judgment, of most discriminating taste."

"And also of sufficient boldness to express the same to you, is it
not so, Jeanne?"

"Madame, the strong are brave. I do not deny. Also he is of an
excellent cooperage business in St. Genevieve yonder. Moreover, I
find the produce of the grape in this country to increase yearly,
so that the business seems to be of a certain future, Madame. His
community is well founded, the oldest in this portion of the
valley. He is young, he has no entanglements--at least, so far as
I discover. He has an excellent home with his old mother. Ah,
well! Madame, one might do worse."

"So, then, a cooperage business so promising as that, Jeanne, seems
more desirable than my own poor employment? You have no regard for
your duty to one who has cared for you, I suppose? You desert me
precisely at the time my own affairs require my presence in
Washington."

"But, Madame, why Washington? Is that our home? What actual home
has madame on the face of the earth? Ah, Heaven!--were only it
possible that this man were to be considered. This place so large,
so beautiful, so in need of a mistress to control it. Madame says
she was carried away against her will. _Mon Dieu_! All my life
have I dreamed--have I hoped--that some time a man should steal me,
to carry me away to some place such as this! And to make love of
such a warmness! Ah, _Mon Dieu_!

"Behold, Madame," she went on, "France itself is not more beautiful
than this country. There is richness here, large lands. That
young man Hector, he says that none in the country is so rich as
Mr. Dunwodee--he does not know how rich he is himself. And such
romance!"

"Jeanne, I forbid you to continue!" The eyes of her mistress had a
dangerous sparkle.

"I obey, Madame, I am silent. But listen! I have followed the
fortunes of madame quite across the sea. As madame knows, I do not
lack intelligence. I have read--many romances, my heart not
lacking interest. Always I have read, I have dreamed, of some man
who should carry me away, who should oblige me--Ah, Madame! what
girl has not in her soul some hero? Almost I was about to say it
was the sight, the words, of the boldness, the audacity of this
assassin, this brute, who has brought us here by