that it will be no disappointment to you to touch the dowry
without being obliged to take the bride with it. Nay, more, I will add
that, if things should so fall out that Isidore should fail to inherit
Beaujardin, and Clotilde should become her uncle's heiress, it will be
for you to win her hand if you can, and thus some day become the owner
of that noble inheritance. Of course, not a word must be breathed at
Beaujardin about this marriage. I have nothing more to say; it is for
you to do the rest."

Within an hour Monsieur de Crillon had started off in pursuit of the
fugitives, and the great unwieldy family coach, with Clotilde and her
mother inside of it, and two of de Crillon's myrmidons acting as
escort, was rolling along, like some great ship at sea, and ploughing
up the miry roads, on its way back to the Chateau of Valricour.

[Illustration: Tailpiece to Chapter VII]

[Illustration: Headpiece to Chapter VIII]

CHAPTER VIII.

On the following afternoon, after giving Madame de Bleury strict
injunctions to keep a watchful eye on the movements of mademoiselle,
the baroness repaired to the Chateau de Beaujardin for the purpose of
making the marquis acquainted with so much of what had recently
transpired as it was desirable that he should know. This was a
business requiring considerable tact and discretion. She had found
little difficulty in persuading him that it was of the highest
importance to break off the intimacy between his son and Marguerite,
and he had readily consented to give such an amount as might induce M.
de Crillon, or any one else, to marry the girl, and thus effectually
save Isidore from such a _mesalliance_. After promising the dowry the
marquis had indeed felt somewhat vexed with himself at not having asked
her for a little more information as to the means by which she intended
to carry out her plans and how Mademoiselle Lacroix was to be induced
to agree to them. He always rather liked Marguerite, and even the high
crime of endeavouring to inveigle his son and heir into a marriage so
infinitely beneath his station could not quite stifle a feeling of pity
for her. But it would have seemed so vacillating and so mistrustful to
question Madame de Valricour's discretion that he had thought it best
to let matters take their course, and this now relieved the baroness
from the necessity of much troublesome explanation. She accordingly
said nothing whatever about the way in which