ses to my dear little godson. Be sure you come to Chantepleurs
in October. I shall be alone there all the time that Macumer is away
in Sardinia, where he is designing great improvements in his estate. At
least that is his plan for the moment, and his pet vanity consists in
having a plan. Then he feels that he has a will of his own, and this
makes him very uneasy when he unfolds it to me. Good-bye!

XXXVI. THE VICOMTESSE DE L'ESTORADE TO THE BARONNE DE MACUMER

Dear,--no words can express the astonishment of all our party when, at
luncheon, we were told that you had both gone, and, above all, when the
postilion who took you to Marseilles handed me your mad letter. Why,
naughty child, it was of your happiness, and nothing else, that made the
theme of those talks below the rock, on the "Louise" seat, and you had
not the faintest justification for objecting to them. _Ingrata!_ My
sentence on you is that you return here at my first summons. In that
horrid letter, scribbled on the inn paper, you did not tell me
what would be your next stopping place; so I must address this to
Chantepleurs.

Listen to me, dear sister of my heart. Know first, that my mind is set
on your happiness. Your husband, dear Louise, commands respect, not only
by his natural gravity and dignified expression, but also because he
somehow impresses one with the splendid power revealed in his piquant
plainness and in the fire of his velvet eyes; and you will understand
that it was some little time before I could meet him on those easy terms
which are almost necessary for intimate conversation. Further, this man
has been Prime Minister, and he idolizes you; whence it follows that he
must be a profound dissembler. To fish up secrets, therefore, from the
rocky caverns of this diplomatic soul is a work demanding a skilful hand
no less than a ready brain. Nevertheless, I succeeded at last, without
rousing my victim's suspicions, in discovering many things of which you,
my pet, have no conception.

You know that, between us two, my part is rather that of reason, yours
of imagination: I personify sober duty, you reckless love. It has
pleased fate to continue in our lives this contrast in character
which was imperceptible to all except ourselves. I am a simple country
vicountess, very ambitious, and making it her task to lead her family on
the road to prosperity. On the other hand, Macumer, late Duc de Soria,
has a name in the world, and you, a duchess by r