I was the Charming
Josephine!" thought the old dame. "I did not despise Beaumanoir in those
days, and why should she now? But she will be neither maid nor mistress
here long, I am thinking!" The dame saluted the young lady with great
deference, and quietly asked if she needed her service.

"Oh! it is you, good dame!"--Caroline answered her own thoughts, rather
than the question,--"tell me what makes this unusual silence in the
Chateau?"

"The Intendant and all the guests have gone to the city, my Lady: a
great officer of the Governor's came to summon them. To be sure, not
many of them were fit to go, but after a deal of bathing and dressing
the gentlemen got off. Such a clatter of horsemen as they rode out, I
never heard before, my Lady; you must have heard them even here!"

"Yes, dame!" replied Caroline, "I heard it; and the Intendant, has he
accompanied them?"

"Yes, my Lady; the freshest and foremost cavalier of them all. Wine and
late hours never hurt the Intendant. It is for that I praise him, for he
is a gallant gentleman, who knows what politeness is to women."

Caroline shrank a little at the thought expressed by the dame. "What
causes you to say that?" asked she.

"I will tell, my Lady! 'Dame Tremblay!' said he, just before he left the
Chateau. 'Dame Tremblay'--he always calls me that when he is formal,
but sometimes when he is merry, he calls me 'Charming Josephine,' in
remembrance of my young days, concerning which he has heard flattering
stories, I dare say--"

"In heaven's name! go on, dame!" Caroline, depressed as she was, felt
the dame's garrulity like a pinch on her impatience. "What said the
Intendant to you, on leaving the Chateau?"

"Oh, he spoke to me of you quite feelingly--that is, bade me take the
utmost care of the poor lady in the secret chamber. I was to give you
everything you wished, and keep off all visitors, if such were your own
desire."

A train of powder does not catch fire from a spark more quickly than
Caroline's imagination from these few words of the old housekeeper. "Did
he say that, good dame? God bless you, and bless him for those words!"
Her eyes filled with tears at the thought of his tenderness, which,
although half fictitious, she wholly believed.

"Yes, dame," continued she. "It is my most earnest desire to be secluded
from all visitors. I wish to see no one but yourself. Have you many
visitors--ladies, I mean--at the Chateau?"

"Oh, yes! the ladies of the city