at court to care about such
insignificant creatures as you or I. Why, I am told he is quite the
right-hand man of the king's minister, and that he is likely enough
some day to rise to be one of the first officers of state; but then he
has no money, and as I have not a farthing, perhaps it is no wonder
that mamma is in such terrible fear of our meeting, even for one
evening, at Beaujardin."

And where was Isidore all this week? If any one asked, the reply was
that it was believed he had gone to Paris to pay his respects to the
king, though there were some amongst the domestics at Beaujardin who
smiled when they heard that, for Monsieur Jasmin was still at the
chateau; it was even whispered that Isidore had once or twice been seen
at Valricour whilst the baroness was away. If that lady, however, did
know anything of these rumours, she took no notice of them, and bided
her time.

There had been a large party at Beaujardin, at which the marquis and
marchioness, whatever may have been their disquietude at heart, had
treated their guests with all their wonted courtesy and attention.
Nevertheless it is likely enough that long after the numerous and
distinguished visitors had retired to rest, the noble host and hostess,
as well as the Baroness de Valricour, who had been present, spent more
than one wakeful hour. Besides them, however, there were three other
persons in the chateau who sat up till a late period of the night. In
a handsomely furnished and well lighted apartment at the rear of the
mansion Monsieur Boulederouloue, the steward or _maitre d'hotel_, with
his special guests, Monsieur Achille Perigord, the _chef de cuisine_,
and Monsieur Jasmin, the young marquis' valet, yet lingered over a
flask of Chateau d'Yquem, such as all the regiments of royal butlers at
Versailles could not have set before his most Christian Majesty Louis
Quinze himself.

The three men were in every particular about as unlike to each other as
any three men could be. The valet, who possessed an unusually good
face and figure, whose costume was unexceptionable, and who had
acquired to perfection the ultra-courteous manners of the time, might
have passed for a nobleman anywhere except alongside of a real one.
One might really have been excused for fancying him of a different race
of beings from Monsieur Boulederouloue, the shapelessness of whose huge
unwieldy frame was happily rendered undistinguishable by an
extravagantly full suit of the