mily servant, and freed from the influences of fear and darkness felt
ashamed of his conduct. While he arranged my clothes, he looked round
the room with an air of distaste, and muttered once or twice that the
furniture of the principal chambers was packed away.

'M. de Cocheforet is abroad, I think?' I said as I dressed.

'And likely to remain there,' the man answered carelessly, shrugging his
shoulders. 'Monsieur will doubtless have heard that he is in trouble. In
the meantime, the house is TRISTE, and Monsieur must overlook much, if
he stays. Madame lives retired, and the roads are ill-made and visitors
few.'

'When the lion was ill the jackals left him,' I said.

Louis nodded. 'It is true,' he answered simply. He made no boast or
brag on his own account, I noticed; and it came home to me that he was
a faithful fellow, such as I love. I questioned him discreetly, and
learned that he and Clon and an older man who lived over the stables
were the only male servants left of a great household. Madame, her
sister-in-law, and three women completed the family.

It took me some time to repair my wardrobe, so that I daresay it was
nearly ten when I left my dismal little room. I found Louis waiting in
the corridor, and he told me that Madame de Cocheforet and Mademoiselle
were in the rose garden, and would be pleased to receive me. I nodded,
and he guided me through several dim passages to a parlour with an open
door, through which the sun shone gaily on the floor. Cheered by the
morning air and this sudden change to pleasantness and life, I stepped
lightly out.

The two ladies were walking up and down a wide path which bisected the
garden. The weeds grew rankly in the gravel underfoot, the rose
bushes which bordered the walk thrust their branches here and there in
untrained freedom, a dark yew hedge which formed the background bristled
with rough shoots and sadly needed trimming. But I did not see any of
these things. The grace, the noble air, the distinction of the two women
who paced slowly to meet me--and who shared all these qualities, greatly
as they differed in others--left me no power to notice trifles.

Mademoiselle was a head shorter than her BELLE-SOEUR--a slender woman
and petite, with a beautiful face and a fair complexion; a woman wholly
womanly. She walked with dignity, but beside Madame's stately figure she
had an air almost childish. And it was characteristic of the two
that Mademoiselle as they drew nea