people in Paris for the Swiss Guards to shoot
conveniently. Don't hold your head too aristocratically high, mother,
till we are quite certain which way the wind really does blow. Who knows
if I may not have to bow just as low one of these days to King Mob as
ever you courtesied in your youth to King Louis the Fifteenth?"

He laughed complacently as he ended, and opened his snuff-box. His
mother rose from her chair, her face crimson with indignation.

"I won't hear you talk so--it shocks, it horrifies me!" she exclaimed,
with vehement gesticulation. "No, no! I decline to hear another word. I
decline to sit by patiently while my son, whom I love, jests at the most
sacred principles, and sneers at the memory of an anointed king. This is
my reward, is it, for having yielded and having come here, against
all the laws of etiquette, the night before the marriage? I comply no
longer; I resume my own will and my own way. I order you, my son, to
accompany me back to Rouen. We are the bridegroom's party, and we have
no business overnight at the house of the bride. You meet no more till
you meet at the church. Justin, my coach! Lomaque, pick up my hood.
Monsieur Trudaine, thanks for your hospitality; I shall hope to
return it with interest the first time you are in our neighborhood.
Mademoiselle, put on your best looks to-morrow, along with your wedding
finery; remember that my son's bride must do honor to my son's taste.
Justin! my coach--drone, vagabond, idiot, where is my coach?"

"My mother looks handsome when she is in a passion, does she not, Rose?"
said Danville, quietly putting up his snuff-box as the old lady sailed
out of the room. "Why, you seem quite frightened, love," he added,
taking her hand with his easy, graceful air; "frightened, let me assure
you, without the least cause. My mother has but that one prejudice, and
that one weak point, Rose. You will find her a very dove for gentleness,
as long as you do not wound her pride of caste. Come, come, on this
night, of all others, you must not send me away with such a face as
that."

He bent down and whispered to her a bridegroom's compliment, which
brought the blood back to her cheek in an instant.

"Ah, how she loves him--how dearly she loves him!" thought her brother,
watching her from his solitary corner of the room, and seeing the smile
that brightened her blushing face when Danville kissed her hand at
parting.

Lomaque, who had remained imperturbably cool du