ille, and was not admitted. The journalist was busy,--partly
with his articles, and partly with certain commissions given to him by
Monsieur de Trailles, under whose orders he was told to place himself.
Mademoiselle Antonia was therefore much alone; and in the ennui of
such solitude, she was led to create for herself a really desperate
amusement.

A few steps from the Hotel de la Poste is a bridge across the Aube;
a path leads down beside it, by a steep incline, to the water's edge,
which, being hidden from the roadway above and little frequented, offers
peace and solitude to whoever may like to dream there to the sound of
the rippling current. Mademoiselle Antonia at first took a book with
her; but books not being, as she says, in her line, she looked about for
other ways of killing her time, and bethought herself of fishing, for
which amusement the landlord of the inn supplied her with a rod. Much
pleased with her first successes, the pretty exile devoted herself to
an occupation which must be attractive,--witness the fanatics that it
makes; and the few persons who crossed the bridge could admire at all
hours a charming naiad in a flounced gown and a broad-brimmed straw hat,
engaged in fishing with the conscientious gravity of a _gamin de Paris_.

Up to this time Mademoiselle Antonia and her fishing have had nothing to
do with our election; but if you will recall, madame, in the history
of Don Quixote (which I have heard you admire for its common-sense and
jovial reasoning) the rather disagreeable adventures of Rosinante and
the muleteers, you will have a foretaste of the good luck which the
development of Mademoiselle Antonia's new passion brought to us.

Our rival, Beauvisage, is not only a successful stocking-maker and an
exemplary mayor, but he is also a model husband, having never tripped in
loyalty to his wife, whom he respects and admires. Every evening, by her
orders, he goes to bed before ten o'clock, while Madame Beauvisage and
her daughter go into what Arcis is pleased to call society. But there is
no more treacherous water, they say, than still water, just as there
was nothing less proper and well-behaved than the calm and peaceable
Rosinante on the occasion referred to.

At any rate, while making the tour of his town according to his laudable
official habit, Beauvisage from the top of the bridge chanced to catch
sight of the fair Parisian who with outstretched arms and gracefully
bent body was pursuing