en, now slept like a top and ate like an ogre. Bathilde also
was very joyous; she calculated that this must be the last day of
Raoul's absence. He had said he should be away six weeks. She had
already counted forty-one long days, and Bathilde would not admit that
there could be an instant's delay; thus the next day she watched her
neighbor's window constantly while studying the cantata. Carriages were
rare in the Rue du Temps-Perdu, but it happened that three passed
between ten and four; each time she ran breathless to the window, and
each time was disappointed. At four o'clock Buvat returned, and this
time it was Bathilde who could not swallow a single morsel. The time to
set out for Sceaux at length arrived, and Bathilde set out deploring the
fate which prevented her following her watch through the night.

When she arrived at Sceaux, however, the lights, the noise, the music,
and above all the excitement of singing for the first time in public,
made her--for the time--almost forget Raoul. Now and then the idea
crossed her mind that he might return during her absence, and finding
her window closed, would think her indifferent; but then she remembered
that Mademoiselle de Launay had promised her that she should be home
before daylight, and she determined that Raoul should see her standing
at her window directly he opened his--then she would explain to him how
she had been obliged to be absent that evening, she would allow him to
suspect what she had suffered, and he would be so happy that he would
forgive her.

All this passed through Bathilde's mind while waiting for Madame de
Maine on the border of the lake, and it was in the midst of the
discourse she was preparing for Raoul that the approach of the little
galley surprised her. At first--in her fear of singing before such a
great company--she thought her voice would fail, but she was too good an
artiste not to be encouraged by the admirable instrumentation which
supported her. She resolved not to allow herself to be intimidated, and
abandoning herself to the inspiration of the music and the scene, she
went through her part with such perfection that every one continued to
take her for the singer whom she replaced, although that singer was the
first at the opera, and was supposed to have no rival. But Bathilde's
astonishment was great, when, after the solo was finished, she looked
toward the group which was approaching her, and saw, seated by Madame de
Maine, a young