M. Camusot to sit in audience to-day and
for the next few days, so that there may be a quorum during M. le
President's absence."

"Then there is an end of the preliminary examination!" cried Mme.
Camusot. "Did I not tell you, dear, that they would play you some
ugly trick? The President has gone off to slander you to the public
prosecutor and the President of the Court-Royal. You will be changed
before you can make the examination. Is that clear?"

"You will stay, monsieur," said the Duchess. "The public prosecutor is
coming, I hope, in time."

"When the public prosecutor arrives," little Mme. Camusot said, with
some heat, "he must find all over.--Yes, my dear, yes," she added,
looking full at her amazed husband.--"Ah! old hypocrite of a President,
you are setting your wits against us; you shall remember it! You have a
mind to help us to a dish of your own making, you shall have two served
up to you by your humble servant Cecile Amelie Thirion!--Poor old
Blondet! It is lucky for him that the President has taken this journey
to turn us out, for now that great oaf of a Joseph Blondet will
marry Mlle. Blandureau. I will let Father Blondet have some seeds in
return.--As for you, Camusot, go to M. Michu's, while Mme. la Duchesse
and I will go to find old Blondet. You must expect to hear it said all
over the town to-morrow that I took a walk with a lover this morning."

Mme. Camusot took the Duchess' arm, and they went through the town by
deserted streets to avoid any unpleasant adventure on the way to the old
Vice-President's house. Chesnel meanwhile conferred with the young
Count in prison; Camusot had arranged a stolen interview. Cook-maids,
servants, and the other early risers of a country town, seeing Mme.
Camusot and the Duchess taking their way through the back streets, took
the young gentleman for an adorer from Paris. That evening, as Cecile
Amelie had said, the news of her behavior was circulated about the town,
and more than one scandalous rumor was occasioned thereby. Mme. Camusot
and her supposed lover found old Blondet in his greenhouse. He greeted
his colleague's wife and her companion, and gave the charming young man
a keen, uneasy glance.

"I have the honor to introduce one of my husband's cousins," said
Mme. Camusot, bringing forward the Duchess; "he is one of the most
distinguished horticulturists in Paris; and as he cannot spend more than
one day with us, on his way back from Brittany, and has heard o