ir.

"How he sleeps," said Susie, "it is a crime to wake him."

"But we must; louder, Susie, louder."

Susie and Bettina both gave free scope to the power of their voices.

Sleep stays not, though a monarch bids,
So I love to wake ere break of day.

The Cure woke with a start. After a short moment of anxiety he breathed
again. Evidently no one had noticed that he had been asleep. He
collected himself, stretched himself prudently, slowly, he was saved!

A quarter of an hour later the two sisters accompanied the Cure and
Jean to the little gate of the park, which opened into the village a few
yards from the vicarage; they had nearly reached the gate when Bettina
said all at once to Jean:

"Ah! all this time I have had a question to ask you. This morning when
we arrived, we met on the way a slight young man, with a fair mustache,
he was riding a black horse, and bowed to us as we passed."

"It was Paul de Lavardens, one of my friends; he has already had the
honor of being introduced to you, but rather vaguely, and his ambition
is to be presented again."

"Well, you shall bring him one of these days," said Mrs. Scott.

"After the 25th!" cried Bettina. "Not before! not before! No one till
then; till then we will see no one but you, Monsieur Jean. But you, it
is very extraordinary, and I don't quite know how it has happened,
you don't seem anybody to us. The compliment is perhaps not very well
turned, but do not make a mistake, it is a compliment. I intended to be
excessively amiable in speaking to you thus."

"And so you are, Miss Percival."

"So much the better if I have been so fortunate as to make myself
understood. Good-by, Monsieur Jean--till tomorrow!"

Mrs. Scott and Miss Percival returned slowly toward the castle.

"And now, Susie," said Bettina, "scold me well, I expect it, I have
deserved it."

"Scold you! Why?"

"You are going to say, I am sure, that I have been too familiar with
that young man."

"No, I shall not say that. From the first day that young man has made
the most favorable impression upon me; he inspires me with perfect
confidence."

"And so he does me."

"I am persuaded that it would be well for us both to try to make a
friend of him."

"With all my heart, as far as I am concerned, so much the more as I
have seen many young men since we have lived in France. Oh! yes, I have,
indeed! Well! this is the first, positively the first, in whose eyes I
have not c