egin to
understand you. But the painter--"

"Oh! the painter must be half an hour late."

"Half an hour--do you really think so?"

"Yes. I do, decidedly."

"Very well, then, I will do as you tell me."

"And my opinion is, that you will be doing perfectly right. Will you
allow me to come and inquire to-morrow a little?"

"Of course."

"I have the honor to be your most respectful servant, M. de
Saint-Aignan," said Malicorne, bowing profoundly, and retiring from the
room backward.

"There is no doubt that fellow has more invention than I have," said
Saint-Aignan, as if compelled by his conviction to admit it.

CHAPTER XLIV.

HAMPTON COURT.

The revelation of which we have been witnesses, that Montalais made to
La Valliere, in a preceding chapter, very naturally makes us return to
the principal hero of this tale, a poor wandering knight, roving about
at the king's caprice. If our reader will be good enough to follow us,
we will, in his company, cross that strait more stormy than the
Euripus--that which separates Calais from Dover; we will speed across
that green and fertile country, with its numerous little streams;
through Maidstone, and many other villages and towns, each prettier than
the other; and finally arrive at London. From thence, like bloodhounds
following a track, after having ascertained that Raoul had made his
first stay at Whitehall, his second at St. James's, and having learned
that he had been warmly received by Monk, and introduced into the best
society of Charles II.'s court, we will follow him to one of Charles
II.'s summer residences, near the town of Kingston, at Hampton Court,
situated on the Thames. This river is not, at that spot, the boastful
highway which bears upon its broad bosom its thousands of travelers; nor
are its waters black and troubled as those of Cocytus, as it boastfully
asserts, "I, too? am the sea." No; at Hampton Court it is a soft and
murmuring stream, with moss-grown banks, reflecting, in its broad
mirror, the willows and beeches which ornament its sides, and on which
may occasionally be seen a light bark indolently reclining among the
tall reeds, in a little creek formed of alders and forget-me-nots. The
surrounding county on all sides seemed smiling in happiness and wealth;
the brick cottages, from whose chimneys the blue smoke was slowly
ascending in wreaths, peeped forth from the belts of green holly which
environed them; children dressed in red frocks