you consider yourself obliged to appear
astonished at my ways of going on. But he knows all about us, and
nothing he may see or hear will surprise him. So a truce to prudery! I
came back yesterday, but I could not make out your hiding-place till
to-day. Now I'm not going to ask you to tell me how you have gone on in
my absence. God and you alone know, and while He will tell me nothing,
you would only tell me fibs, and I want to save you from that venial sin
at least. But here I am, in as good spirits as ever, more in love than
ever, and quite ready to resume my old habits."

Meantime the lady, quite subdued by his noisy entrance and ruffianly
conduct, and seeing that an assumption of dignity would only draw down on
her some fresh impertinence, appeared to resign herself to her position.
All this time Quennebert never took his eyes from the chevalier, who sat
with his face towards the partition. His elegantly cut costume
accentuated his personal advantages. His jet black hair brought into
relief the whiteness of his forehead; his large dark eyes with their
veined lids and silky lashes had a penetrating and peculiar expression--a
mixture of audacity and weakness; his thin and somewhat pale lips were
apt to curl in an ironical smile; his hands were of perfect beauty, his
feet of dainty smallness, and he showed with an affectation of
complaisance a well-turned leg above his ample boots, the turned down
tops of which, garnished with lace, fell in irregular folds aver his
ankles in the latest fashion. He did not appear to be more than eighteen
years of age, and nature had denied his charming face the distinctive
sign of his sex for not the slightest down was visible on his chin,
though a little delicate pencilling darkened his upper lip: His slightly
effeminate style of beauty, the graceful curves of his figure, his
expression, sometimes coaxing, sometimes saucy, reminding one of a page,
gave him the appearance of a charming young scapegrace destined to
inspire sudden passions and wayward fancies. While his pretended uncle
was making himself at home most unceremoniously, Quennebert remarked that
the chevalier at once began to lay siege to his fair hostess, bestowing
tender and love-laden glances on her behind that uncle's back. This
redoubled his curiosity.

"My dear girl," said the commander, "since I saw you last I have come
into a fortune of one hundred thousand livres, neither more nor less. One
of my dear au