low had somewhat indiscreetly been listening to the
conversation.

"Oh! you were listening, Paul Pry!" said Rose gayly, as she entered the
adjoining room with her sister, and both affectionately embraced the
soldier.

"To be sure, I was listening; and I only regretted not to have ears
as large as Spoil-sport's! Brave, good girls! that's how I like to see
you--bold as brass, and saying to care and sorrow: 'Right about face!
march! go to the devil!'"

"He will want to make us swear, now," said Rose to her sister, laughing
with all her might.

"Well! now and then, it does no harm," said the soldier; "it relieves
and calms one, when if one could not swear by five hundred thousand
de--"

"That's enough!" said Rose, covering with her pretty hand the gray
moustache, so as to stop Dagobert in his speech. "If Madame Augustine
heard you--"

"Our poor governess! so mild and timid," resumed Blanche. "How you would
frighten her!"

"Yes," said Dagobert, as he tried to conceal his rising embarrassment;
"but she does not hear us. She is gone into the country."

"Good, worthy woman!" replied Blanche, with interest. "She said
something of you, which shows her excellent heart."

"Certainly," resumed Rose; "for she said to us, in speaking of you, 'Ah,
young ladies! my affection must appear very little, compared with M.
Dagobert's. But I feel that I also have the right to devote myself to
you.'"

"No doubt, no doubt! she has a heart of gold," answered Dagobert. Then
he added to himself, "It's as if they did it on purpose, to bring the
conversation back to this poor woman."

"Father made a good choice," continued Rose. "She is the widow of an old
officer, who was with him in the wars."

"When we were out of spirits," said Blanche, "you should have seen her
uneasiness and grief, and how earnestly she set about consoling us."

"I have seen the tears in her eyes when she looked at us," resumed Rose.
"Oh! she loves us tenderly, and we return her affection. With regard to
that, Dagobert, we have a plan as soon as our father comes back."

"Be quiet, sister!" said Blanche, laughing. "Dagobert will not keep our
secret."

"He!"

"Will you keep it for us, Dagobert?"

"I tell you what," said the soldier, more and more embarrassed; "you had
better not tell it to me."

"What! can you keep nothing from Madame Augustine?"

"Ah, Dagobert! Dagobert!" said Blanche, gayly holding up her finger at
the soldier; "I suspect you very much