t was wise, and it was not long ere
I carried it out.

When I awoke, it was well on in the afternoon, and we were close
inshore.

"Yes, madame, it is the Island. There is my house--the one with
the flag-staff. See, my good woman has the signal flying for me.
I can never come within reach without her scenting me out."

There was a fine pride in his words, and his house was worthy of
it. A clean, honest, white face it presented, framed in young
hop-vines carefully trained up the low curving roof, and set in a
garden which already gave promise of much bloom. His wife, a plump,
comely woman, waited for us at the landing-place.

"Ma bonne amie!" said Gabriel, embracing her. "Madame de St. Just
has crossed with me from Beaulieu to await le pere Jean here, and
will stay with you until he comes."

"Your servant, madame," she answered, with a neat courtesy. "If my
good man had let me know you were coming, I would have been better
prepared."

"'Qui n'a, ne peut,' ma bonne femme. You will do your best, and
madame will not ask for more. Had she known of her coming herself,
she would have travelled with her servant, as she is used; but she
comes alone, because she has great need, and I assured her you
would be proud to do all you can for her sake."

"So I will, madame; do not let my husband make you believe I am
not more than pleased to have you in my poor house. You do us too
much honour in asking it. Come, madame, let me shew you the way."

The house lost nothing of its charm on a nearer approach, and its
interior spake volumes for its keeper's cleanliness--not a common
quality in the country, as I discovered later. The furniture was
of the simplest description, but the well-scrubbed floor was covered
with bright-coloured strips of home-made carpeting--"les catalogues,"
as she called it--and in one corner stood the pride of the family,
the great bed--a huge construction, covered with a marvellous quilt
of patchwork, and hung with spotless valance and curtains.

Gabriel was to set off by the next tide, and left only after charging
his Amelia with numberless instructions as to my care and comfort.

"Oh, these men!" laughed the good-natured woman. "They think the
world can't turn round without their advice!"

I was too tired and too safe not to sleep well, and when the smiling
face of Madame Dufour appeared at my bedside in the morning, it
was to inform me that le pere Jean's canoe was already in sight,
and he would be