earth on the back of my
coat and pine-needles in my hair." It occurred to him that the situation
required a good deal of circumspection on his part.

"I am greatly concerned, mademoiselle," he began, vaguely, and abandoned
that line. She was sitting up on the divan with her cheeks
unusually pink and her hair, brilliantly fair, falling all over her
shoulders--which was a very novel sight to the general. He walked away
up the room, and looking out of the window for safety said, "I fear you
must think I behaved like a madman," in accents of sincere despair. Then
he spun round, and noticed that she had followed him with her eyes. They
were not cast down on meeting his glance. And the expression of her face
was novel to him also. It was, one might have said, reversed. Those eyes
looked at him with grave thoughtfulness, while the exquisite lines of
her mouth seemed to suggest a restrained smile. This change made her
transcendental beauty much less mysterious, much more accessible to a
man's comprehension. An amazing ease of mind came to the general--and
even some ease of manner. He walked down the room with as much
pleasurable excitement as he would have found in walking up to a battery
vomiting death, fire, and smoke; then stood looking down with smiling
eyes at the girl whose marriage with him (next week) had been so
carefully arranged by the wise, the good, the admirable Leonie.

"Ah! mademoiselle," he said, in a tone of courtly regret, "if only I
could be certain that you did not come here this morning, two miles,
running all the way, merely from affection for your mother!"

He waited for an answer imperturbable but inwardly elated. It came in a
demure murmur, eyelashes lowered with fascinating effect. "You must not
be mechant as well as mad."

And then General D'Hubert made an aggressive movement towards the divan
which nothing could check. That piece of furniture was not exactly in
the line of the open door. But Madame Leonie, coming back wrapped up in
a light cloak and carrying a lace shawl on her arm for Adele to hide her
incriminating hair under, had a swift impression of her brother getting
up from his knees.

"Come along, my dear child," she cried from the doorway.

The general, now himself again in the fullest sense, showed the
readiness of a resourceful cavalry officer and the peremptoriness of a
leader of men. "You don't expect her to walk to the carriage," he said,
indignantly. "She isn't fit. I shall ca