d their sleep, and that a cannon would not
waken them; you know that Madame's bell can be heard at the bridge
of Blois, and that consequently I shall hear it when my services are
required by Madame. What annoys you, my child, is that I laugh while you
are writing; and what you are afraid of is that Madame de Saint-Remy,
your mother, should come up here, as she does sometimes when we laugh
too loud, that she should surprise us, and that she should see that
enormous sheet of paper upon which, in a quarter of an hour, you have
only traced the words Monsieur Raoul. Now, you are right, my dear
Louise, because after these words, 'Monsieur Raoul,' others may be put
so significant and so incendiary as to cause Madame de Saint-Remy to
burst out into fire and flames! Hein! is not that true now?--say."

And Montalais redoubled her laughter and noisy provocations.

The fair girl at length became quite angry; she tore the sheet of paper
on which, in fact, the words "Monsieur Raoul" were written in good
characters, and crushing the paper in her trembling hands, she threw it
out of the window.

"There! there!" said Mademoiselle de Montalais; "there is our little
lamb, our gentle dove, angry! Don't be afraid, Louise--Madame de
Saint-Remy will not come; and if she should, you know I have a quick
ear. Besides, what can be more permissible than to write to an old
friend of twelve years' standing, particularly when the letter begins
with the words 'Monsieur Raoul'?"

"It is all very well--I will not write to him at all," said the young
girl.

"Ah, ah! in good sooth, Montalais is properly punished," cried the
jeering brunette, still laughing. "Come, come! let us try another sheet
of paper, and finish our dispatch off-hand. Good! there is the bell
ringing now. By my faith, so much the worse! Madame must wait, or else
do without her first maid of honor this morning."

A bell, in fact, did ring; it announced that Madame had finished her
toilette, and waited for Monsieur to give her his hand, and conduct her
from the salon to the refectory.

This formality being accomplished with great ceremony, the husband and
wife breakfasted, and then separated till the hour of dinner, invariably
fixed at two o'clock.

The sound of this bell caused a door to be opened in the offices on the
left hand of the court, from which filed two maitres d'hotel followed by
eight scullions bearing a kind of hand-barrow loaded with dishes under
silver covers.