large as my thumb, and diamond rings on every finger! None of your
tuppenny beauties would wear so many diamonds in the middle of the day."

"You are a pretty judge!"

"That is not all."

"Do you mean to say there's more?"

"She talked of nothing but dukes, and marquises, and counts, and very
rich gentlemen, who visit at her house, and are her most intimate
friends; and then, when she saw the summer house in the park, half-burnt
by the Prussians, which our late master never rebuilt, she asked, 'What
are those ruins there?' and I answered: 'Madame, it was in the time of
the Allies that the pavilion was burnt.'--'Oh, my clear,' cried she;
'our allies, good, dear allies! they and the Restoration began my
fortune!' So you see, Dupont, I said to myself directly: 'She was no
doubt one of the noble women who fled abroad--'"

"Madame de la Sainte-Colombe!" cried the bailiff, laughing heartily.
"Oh, my poor, poor wife!"

"Oh, it is all very well; but because you have been three years at
Paris, don't think yourself a conjurer!"

"Catherine, let's drop it: you will make me say some folly, and there
are certain things which dear, good creatures like you need never know."

"I cannot tell what you are driving at, only try to be less
slanderous--for, after all, should Madame de la Sainte-Colombe buy the
estate, will you be sorry to remain as her bailiff, eh?"

"Not I--for we are getting old, my good Catherine; we have lived here
twenty years, and we have been too honest to provide for our old days
by pilfering--and truly, at our age, it would be hard to seek another
place, which perhaps we should not find. What I regret is, that
Mademoiselle Adrienne should not keep the land; it seems that she wished
to sell it, against the will of the princess."

"Good gracious, Dupont! is it not very extraordinary that Mademoiselle
Adrienne should have the disposal of her large fortune so early in
life?"

"Faith! simple enough. Our young lady, having no father or mother, is
mistress of her property, besides having a famous little will of her
own. Dost remember, ten years ago, when the count brought her down here
one summer?--what an imp of mischief! and then what eyes! eh?--how they
sparkled, even then!"

"It is true that Mademoiselle Adrienne had in her look--an expression--a
very uncommon expression for her age."

"If she has kept what her witching, luring face promised, she must be
very pretty by this time, notwithstanding the pec