indicated that this was not the first time she had amused herself by
adopting the garb of the opposite sex, Eugenie drew on the boots and
pantaloons, tied her cravat, buttoned her waistcoat up to the throat,
and put on a coat which admirably fitted her beautiful figure. "Oh, that
is very good--indeed, it is very good!" said Louise, looking at her with
admiration; "but that beautiful black hair, those magnificent braids,
which made all the ladies sigh with envy,--will they go under a man's
hat like the one I see down there?"

"You shall see," said Eugenie. And with her left hand seizing the thick
mass, which her long fingers could scarcely grasp, she took in her right
hand a pair of long scissors, and soon the steel met through the rich
and splendid hair, which fell in a cluster at her feet as she leaned
back to keep it from her coat. Then she grasped the front hair, which
she also cut off, without expressing the least regret; on the contrary,
her eyes sparkled with greater pleasure than usual under her ebony
eyebrows. "Oh, the magnificent hair!" said Louise, with regret.

"And am I not a hundred times better thus?" cried Eugenie, smoothing the
scattered curls of her hair, which had now quite a masculine appearance;
"and do you not think me handsomer so?"

"Oh, you are beautiful--always beautiful!" cried Louise. "Now, where are
you going?"

"To Brussels, if you like; it is the nearest frontier. We can go to
Brussels, Liege, Aix-la-Chapelle; then up the Rhine to Strasburg. We
will cross Switzerland, and go down into Italy by the Saint-Gothard.
Will that do?"

"Yes."

"What are you looking at?"

"I am looking at you; indeed you are adorable like that! One would say
you were carrying me off."

"And they would be right, pardieu!"

"Oh, I think you swore, Eugenie." And the two young girls, whom every
one might have thought plunged in grief, the one on her own account, the
other from interest in her friend, burst out laughing, as they cleared
away every visible trace of the disorder which had naturally accompanied
the preparations for their escape. Then, having blown out the lights,
the two fugitives, looking and listening eagerly, with outstretched
necks, opened the door of a dressing-room which led by a side staircase
down to the yard,--Eugenie going first, and holding with one arm
the portmanteau, which by the opposite handle Mademoiselle d'Armilly
scarcely raised with both hands. The yard was empty; the clock wa