n, for which nature had fitted
her. Last of all was the thought of the Englishman whom I resembled.
She would go back to him.

Nick was the first in my room the next morning. He had risen early (so
he ingenuously informed me) because Antoinette had a habit of getting up
with the birds, and as I drank my coffee he was emphatic in his
denunciations of the customs of the country.

"It is a wonderful day, Davy," he cried; "you must hurry and get out.
Monsieur de St. Gre sends his compliments, and wishes to know if you will
pardon his absence this morning. He is going to escort Antoinette and me
over to see some of my prospective cousins, the Bertrands." He made a
face, and bent nearer to my ear. "I swear to you I have not had one
moment alone with her. We have been for a walk, but Madame la Vicomtesse
must needs intrude herself upon us. Egad, I told her plainly what I
thought of her tyranny."

"And what did she say?" I asked, trying to smile.

"She laughed, and said that I belonged to a young nation which had done
much harm in the world to everybody but themselves. Faith, if I wasn't
in love with Antoinette, I believe I'd be in love with her."

"I have no doubt of it," I answered.

"The Vicomtesse is as handsome as a queen this morning," he continued,
paying no heed to this remark. "She has on a linen dress that puzzles
me. It was made to walk among the trees and flowers, it is as simple as
you please; and yet it has a distinction that makes you stare."

"You seem to have stared," I answered. "Since when did you take such
interest in gowns?"

"Bless you, it was Antoinette. I never should have known," said he.
"Antoinette had never before seen the gown, and she asked the Vicomtesse
where she got the pattern. The Vicomtesse said that the gown had been
made by Leonard, a court dressmaker, and it was of the fashion the Queen
had set to wear in the gardens of the Trianon when simplicity became the
craze. Antoinette is to have it copied, so she says."

Which proved that Antoinette was human, after all, and happy once more.

"Hang it," said Nick, "she paid more attention to that gown than to me.
Good-by, Davy. Obey the--the Colonel."

"Is--is not the Vicomtesse going with you?" I asked

"No, I'm sorry for you," he called back from the gallery.

He had need to be, for I fell into as great a fright as ever I had had in
my life. Monsieur de St. Gre knocked at the door and startled me out of
my wits. Hearing that I was