w that I can make all allowance for you? You are
suffering very much. I hope Velpeau will be able to do something for you.
You know he stands at the head of the medical profession in Paris, which
is as much as to say, in the world."

"Yes, I know," said Valerie, indifferently. Then, with sudden
earnestness, she exclaimed: "I wish _you_ would do something for
me."

"Why, my poor girl, I would do anything in the world for you. Tell me
what you want me to do."

"I know you cannot leave Paris now, and so you cannot, yourself, take
me to England; but I wish to go there; I wish you to send me there to
Hereward Hold, where we passed so many peaceful months."

"To send you there _alone_, Valerie?" inquired the duke, in surprise.

"No, but with my personal attendants, and with any discreet old lady you
may choose to appoint as my companion, if, like an old Spanish husband,
you think your young wife may require watching when she is out of your
sight," she added, with a relapse into her irritable mood.

"Valerie! you wrong me and yourself by such a thought," said the duke,
gravely.

"I know I do, and I know I am a wretch! but I want to go to England.
I want to get away from everybody, and be by myself. You promised to do
what I wanted done. That is what I want done."

"Do you wish 'to get away' from _me_, Valerie?"

"Yes, from you and from _everybody_, except from my servants, who
are not my companions, and therefore don't bore me."

"It must be as I thought," said the duke to himself; "all this
eccentricity, this nervous irritability has a natural cause, and not
an alarming one, and it must be humored."

"Will you keep your promise?" she testily inquired.

"Certainly, my dear child. Anything to please you. You will see Velpeau
this afternoon. If after consulting him you still think it necessary to
leave Paris for Hereward Hold, I will send you there under proper
protection. By the by, you succeed very well in getting away from your
friends I think. The Count de Volaski called here while you were away
this forenoon. He seemed disappointed in not seeing you. He looks ill.
I never saw a man change so within the last few days. I should not wonder
if he were on the very verge of a bad fever. I wish you had seen him. He
was quite a friend of yours in St. Petersburg, I believe."

"I used to see him every day in the public assemblies to which we were
always going. I wish you wouldn't talk about him," gasped Valerie, with