ellowes; "but for that reason Miss Woodford would
feel bound to show double courtesy to the discrowned Queen."

"And she has often been very kind to me--I love her much," said
Anne.

"Noemi is a little Whig," said Madame de Bellaise. "I shall not
take her with us, because I know her father would not like it, but
to me it is only like the days of my youth to visit an exiled queen.
Will these gentlemen think fit to be of the party?"

"Thank you, madam, not I," said the Magdalen man. "I am very sorry
for the poor lady, but my college has suffered too much at her
husband's hands for me to be very anxious to pay her my respects;
and if my young friend will take my advice, neither will he. It
might be bringing his father into trouble."

To this Charles agreed, so M. L'Abbe undertook to show them the
pictures at the Louvre, and Anne and Madame de Bellaise were the
only occupants of the carriage that conveyed them to the great old
convent of Poissy, the girl enjoying by the way the comfort of the
kindness of a motherly woman, though even to her there could be no
confiding of the terrible secret that underlay all her thoughts.
Madame de Bellaise, however, said how glad she was to secure this
companionship for her niece. Noemi had been more attached than her
family realised to Claude Merrycourt, a neighbour who had had the
folly, contrary to her prudent father's advice, to rush into
Monmouth's rebellion, and it had only been by the poor girl's agony
when he suffered under the summary barbarities of Kirke that her
mother had known how much her heart was with him. The depression of
spirits and loss of health that ensued had been so alarming that
when Madame de Bellaise, after some months, paid a long visit to her
sister in England, Mrs. Darpent had consented to send the girl to
make acquaintance with her French relations, and try the effect of
change of scene. She had gone, indifferent, passive, and broken-
hearted, but her aunt had watched over her tenderly, and she had
gradually revived, not indeed into a joyous girl, but into a calm
and fairly cheerful woman.

When she had left home, France and England were only too closely
connected, but now they were at daggers drawn, and probably would be
so for many years, and the Revolution had come so suddenly that
Madame de Bellaise had not been able to make arrangements for her
niece's return home, and Noemi was anxiously waiting for an
opportunity of rejoining her parents.