loises can steal away her lover
when and where she will. She has only to look at him across the street,
and presto, change! he is gone from her as if by magic. But will you
really help me, Mademoiselle?"

"Most willingly, Sieur La Force,--for your profit if not for your honor!
I am just in the humor for tormenting somebody this morning; so get your
horse and let us be off!"

Before La Force had mounted his horse, a number of gaily-dressed young
ladies came in sight, in full sail down the Rue St. Ann, like a fleet of
rakish little yachts, bearing down upon Angelique and her companion.

"Shall we wait for them, La Force?" asked she. "They are from the
Convent!"

"Yes, and SHE is there too! The news will be all over the city in an
hour that I am riding with you!" exclaimed La Force in a tone of intense
satisfaction.

Five girls just verging on womanhood, perfect in manner and
appearance--as the Ursulines knew well how to train the young
olive-plants of the Colony,--walked on demurely enough, looking
apparently straight forward, but casting side glances from under their
veils which raked the Sieur La Force and Angelique with a searching
fire that nothing could withstand, La Force said; but which Angelique
remarked was simply "impudence, such as could only be found in Convent
girls!"

They came nearer. Angelique might have supposed they were going to pass
by them had she not known too well their sly ways. The foremost of
the five, Louise Roy, whose glorious hair was the boast of the city,
suddenly threw back her veil, and disclosing a charming face, dimpled
with smiles and with a thousand mischiefs lurking in her bright gray
eyes, sprang towards Angelique, while her companions--all Louises of the
famous class of that name--also threw up their veils, and stood saluting
Angelique and La Force with infinite merriment.

Louise Roy, quizzing La Force through a coquettish eyeglass which she
wore on a ribbon round her pretty neck, as if she had never seen him
before, motioned to him in a queenly way as she raised her dainty foot,
giving him a severe look, or what tried to be such but was in truth an
absurd failure.

He instantly comprehended her command, for such it was, and held out
his hand, upon which she stepped lightly, and sprang up to Angelique,
embracing and kissing her with such cordiality that, if it were not
real, the acting was perfect. At the same time Louise Roy made her
understand that she was not the only