was, to
all appearance, the happiest of the social group.

Grave matters, as well as trivial, were, however, debated that night
round the supper-table of the English party; and of the four assembled,
as neither had attained the coolness and experience of twenty-six
complete summers, and two of the four (the married pair) had forfeited
all pretensions to worldly wisdom by a romantic love-match, it is not
much to be wondered at that Prudence was scarcely admitted to a share in
the consultation, and that she was unanimously outvoted in conclusion.

The cabinet council sat till past midnight, yet Walter Barnard was awake
next morning, and "stirring with the lark," and brushing the dew-drops
from the wild-brier sprays, as he bounded by them through the fields,
on his way to----_not_ St Hilaire.

Again in the gloaming he was espied by the miller's wife, threading the
same path to the same trysting-place--for that it _was_ a trysting-place
she had ocular demonstration--and again the next day matins and vespers
were as duly said by the same parties in the same oratory, and Dame
Simonne was privy to the same, and yet she had not whispered her
knowledge even to the reeds. How much longer the unnatural retention
might have continued, would have been a curious metaphysical question,
had not circumstances, interfering with the ends of science, hurried on
an "unforeseen conclusion."

On the third morning the usual tryst was kept at the accustomed place,
at an earlier hour than on the preceding days; but shorter parley
sufficed on this occasion, for the two who met there with no cold
greeting, turned together into the pleasant path, so lately traced on
his way from the town with beating heart, by one who retraced his
footsteps even more eagerly, with the timid companion, who went
consentingly, but not self-excused.

Sharp and anxious was the watch kept by the miller's wife for the return
of the pair, whose absence for the next two hours she was at no loss to
account for; but they tarried beyond that period, and Dame Simonne was
growing fidgety at their non-appearance, when she caught sight of their
advancing figures, at the same moment that the gate of the Manoir swung
open, and forth issued the stately forms of Madame and Mesdemoiselles du
Resnel!

Dame Simonne's senses were well-nigh confounded at the sight, and well
they might, for well she knew what one so unusual portended--and there
was no time--not a moment--not a possi