s since we had parted. She told me
that she had thought best to make the announcement of her marriage as
public and as ceremonious as possible, and for that reason had
invited all of the most considerable people of the neighborhood to
the chateau of Capello on a certain day. She told me--poor, unhappy
Francezka--that in anticipation of a gala when Gaston should return,
she had prepared handsome new liveries for all her servants, and had
refurnished the red saloon, and had hung the Diana gallery with
mirrors. These things she determined to display on the day she made
the announcement.

"For, in spite of my heavy misfortune in not knowing where my husband
is, it must ever be a day of congratulation and of honor with me when
I tell the world that I am Gaston Cheverny's wife," she said proudly.

She had written to the Bishop of Louvain with her own hand, but by
some accident he had heard before receiving the letter that Francezka
was privately married--only that Count Bellegarde, his relative, was
the happy man, instead of Gaston Cheverny. The bishop, pleased at his
nephew's good fortune, wrote Francezka a letter of congratulation,
warmly approving her marriage, and most indulgent toward the secrecy
of it. But on receiving Francezka's letter, saying she was Gaston
Cheverny's wife, the bishop changed his tune and sent Francezka a
fulmination, in which he denounced the secrecy of the marriage
excessively. To this Francezka replied, saying as the bishop was so
incensed with her, she would reconsider a considerable gift she had
intended making toward building the new wing of the palace, to which
Madame Riano was so much opposed. This brought the bishop down on his
marrow bones. Francezka, in spite of her trouble, was still Francezka,
and a gleam of her old humor shone in her eyes when she told of the
bishop's discomfiture, and especially that the threatened withdrawal
of the gift was the suggestion of Father Benart, the bishop's brother.
I always knew the little priest was not devoid of either sense or
humor.

When the day came Francezka said she was so torn with emotions she
could scarcely go through with it, but pride and devotion to Gaston
Cheverny held her up. And a great piece of good fortune befell her at
the crucial moment--Madame Riano arrived unexpectedly from Scotland.
Another gleam of humor shot from Francezka's eyes when she told me
that Madame Riano claimed to have had supernatural information in
Scotland that