ts, and I don't know how many more
heart-vexing imposts and exactions besides, there's nothing left to
subsist upon; and that's hard when one hears how grandly all the great
folks live, and never lift a finger to keep the poor from starving."

"But where have they gone?" inquired the lady, eagerly.

"Well, madame, I took them on to the next village, where the gentleman
got a good horse, and presently rode away with his young wife on a
pillion behind him. They have gone to Nantes, where a brother of my
cousin Perigord keeps an inn on the Quai La Fosse."

It was not long before Madame de Valricour was closeted with de
Crillon, who had by this time arrived at the convent.

"We have come too late," said she, bitterly, after describing her
interviews with the cure and Greboeuf.

De Crillon shrugged his shoulders. "I presume, then," said he, "that
there is nothing more to be done."

"Nothing more!" retorted the lady, impetuously. "We have all the clue
we want, and you have with you the king's _lettre de cachet_. I care
not what becomes of her, so long as she is safely placed where she will
not trouble us any more; but mind, M. de Crillon, no harm is to come to
my nephew."

De Crillon smiled. "Ah," said he, "I am to dispose of the young lady,
so that Monsieur Isidore may come back and some day marry Mademoiselle
Clotilde?"

"That was not spoken with M. de Crillon's usual acuteness," replied the
baroness. "Isidore is more likely in his anger and disappointment to
betake himself anywhere else than to Beaujardin, and in any case you
know that he is now married, and cannot wed Clotilde."

"Well, then," said he, "I fail to see the drift of madame's proposal."

"What!" exclaimed the baroness; "do you know so little what a woman is
as to suppose that I could ever brook seeing this upstart come to
Beaujardin as Isidore's wife, to lord it over me, after I have had
every one there at my beck and call for a score of years past? Think
you I could live to be tolerated by that child when she came to be
mistress of Beaujardin? Never! Listen to me," said she. "You have
played your part well enough till now, and I engage that, on my return
to Beaujardin, I will obtain for you from the marquis the dowry you
would have had with Mademoiselle Lacroix but for the accident which you
could not help. That is but fair. But it must be on the condition
that this hateful girl shall trouble me no more. I know well enough,
monsieur,