in the Champs
Elysees. I offered him my arm; he accepted it; and, when we came back,
he asked me if I would be kind enough to take pot-luck with him."

However important these communications were for Daniel, he was for some
time already listening but very inattentively to the count's recital,
for he had heard a strange, faint noise, which he could not by any
means explain to himself. At last, looking all around, he discovered the
cause.

The door to his bedroom, which he was sure he had closed himself,
was now standing partly open. No doubt M. de Brevan, weary of his
confinement and excited by curiosity, had chosen this way to see and
to listen. Of all this, however, Count Ville-Handry saw nothing, and
suspected nothing.

"Thus," he continued, "I was at last to see Miss Sarah again. Upon my
word, I was less excited, I think, the day I made my first speech. But
you know I have some power over myself; and I had recovered my calmness,
when Sir Thorn confessed to me that he would have invited me long since,
but for the fear of offending his young relative, who had declared she
would never meet me again. I was grieved, and asked how I had offended
her. And then Sir Thorn, with that marvellous composure which never
leaves him, said, 'It is not you she blames, but herself, on account of
that ridiculous scene the other day.'

"Do you hear, Daniel, he called that adorable scene which I have just
described to you, ridiculous! It is only Americans who can commit such
absurdities.

"I have since found out that they had almost to force Miss Brandon to
receive me; but she had tact enough not to let me see it, when I was
formally presented to her, just before going to dinner. It is true, she
blushed deeply; but she took my hand with the utmost cordiality, and cut
me short when I was trying to pay her some compliment, saying,--

"'You are Thorn's friend; I am sure we shall be friends also.'

"Ah, Daniel! you admired Miss Brandon at the theatre; but you ought
to see her at her house. Abroad she sacrifices herself in order to pay
proper regard to the world; but at home she can venture to be herself.

"We soon became friends, as she had foretold, so soon, in fact, that
I was quite surprised when I found her addressing me like an old
acquaintance. I soon discovered how that came about.

"Our young girls here in France, my dear Daniel, are charming, no doubt,
but generally ill taught, frivolous, and caring for nothing but balls,