ngue, if
not her thoughts, would be sealed up in perpetual silence on that bloody
topic. Bigot must feed her with hopes of marriage, and if necessary set
a day for it, far enough off to cover all the time to be taken up in the
search after Caroline.

"I will never marry her, Cadet!" exclaimed Bigot, "but will make her
regret all her life she did not marry me!"

"Take care, Bigot! It is dangerous playing with fire. You don't half
know Angelique."

"I mean she shall pull the chestnuts out of the fire for me with her
pretty fingers, until she burn them," remarked Bigot, gruffly.

"I would not trust her too far! In all seriousness, you have but the
choice of two things, Bigot: marry her or send her to the Convent."

"I would not do the one, and I could not do the other, Cadet," was
Bigot's prompt reply to this suggestion.

"Tut! Mere Migeon de la Nativite will respect your lettre de cachet,
and provide a close, comfortable cell for this pretty penitent in the
Ursulines," said Cadet.

"Not she! Mere Migeon gave me one of her parlor-lectures once, and I
care not for another. Egad, Cadet! she made me the nearest of being
ashamed of Francois Bigot of any one I ever listened to! Could you have
seen her, with her veil thrown back, her pale face still paler with
indignation, her black eyes looking still blacker beneath the white
fillet upon her forehead, and then her tongue, Cadet! Well, I withdrew
my proposal and felt myself rather cheapened in the presence of Mere
Migeon."

"Ay, I hear she is a clipper when she gets a sinner by the hair! What
was the proposal you made to her, Bigot?" asked Cadet, smiling as if he
knew.

"Oh, it was not worth a livre to make such a row about! I only proposed
to send a truant damsel to the Convent to repent of MY faults, that was
all! But I could never dispose of Angelique in that way," continued the
Intendant, with a shrug.

"Egad! she will fool any man faster than he can make a fool of her! But
I would try Mere Migeon, notwithstanding," replied Cadet. "She is the
only one to break in this wild filly and nail her tongue fast to her
prayers!"

"It is useless trying. They know Angelique too well. She would turn
the Convent out of the windows in the time of a neuvaine. They are all
really afraid of her," replied Bigot.

"Then you must marry her, or do worse, Bigot. I see nothing else for
it," was Cadet's reply.

"Well, I will do worse, if worse can be; for marry her I will not!" sa