re
rebuff. The few seconds that elapsed while she was still alone in the
drawing-room seemed like so many centuries; but the door was opened, and
Norbert and his wife appeared. Then, with a charming smile, Madame de
Mussidan rose and bowed gracefully to the Duchess de Champdoce, making a
series of half-jesting apologies for her intrusion. She had been utterly
unable, she said, to resist the pleasure she should experience in seeing
an old country neighbor, the more so as they were now separated by
so short a distance. She had, therefore, disregarded all the rules of
etiquette so that they might have a cozy chat about Poitiers, Bevron,
Champdoce, and all the country where she had been born, and which she so
dearly loved.

The Duchess listened in silence to this torrent of words, and the
expression of her face showed how surprised she was at this unexpected
visit. A less perfectly self-possessed woman than Diana de Mussidan
might have felt abashed, but the slight annoyance was not to be compared
to the prospective advantages that she hoped to gain, and she brought
all the mettle of her talent and diplomacy into play.

Norbert was moving about the room, half ashamed of the ignoble part that
he was playing. As soon as he thought that the welcome between the
two ladies had been partially got over, and imagined that they were
conversing more amicably together, he slipped out of the room, not
knowing whether to be pleased or angry at the success of the trick.

The trick was rather a more difficult one than Diana had, from Norbert's
account, anticipated, as she had thought that she would have been
received by the Duchess like some ministering angel sent down to earth
to console an unhappy captive. She had expected to find a simple,
guileless woman, who, upon her first visit, would throw her arms round
her visitor's neck and yield herself entirely to her influence.
Far, however, from being dismayed, Diana was rather pleased at
this unexpected difficulty, and so fully exerted all her powers of
fascination, that when she took her leave, she believed that she had
made a little progress.

On that very evening the Duchess remarked to her husband,--

"I think that I shall like Madame de Mussidan; she seems an excellent
kind of woman."

"Excellent is just the proper word," returned Norbert. "All Bevron was
in tears when she was married and had to leave, for she was a real angel
among the poor."

Norbert was intensely gratified