ion was not that of a man who "imagines" with
facility. He did, however, fish out of the chaos of surmises the notion
that his prospective mother-in-law had died suddenly, but only to
dismiss it at once. He could not conceive the nature of the event or the
catastrophe which would induce Mademoiselle de Valmassigue, living in a
house full of servants, to bring the news over the fields herself, two
miles, running all the way.

"But why are you in this room?" he whispered, full of awe.

"Of course, I ran up to see, and this child . . . I did not notice it
. . . she followed me. It's that absurd Chevalier," went on Madame
Leonie, looking towards the divan. . . . "Her hair is all come down. You
may imagine she did not stop to call her maid to dress it before she
started. . . Adele, my dear, sit up. . . . He blurted it all out to her
at half-past five in the morning. She woke up early and opened her
shutters to breathe the fresh air, and saw him sitting collapsed on a
garden bench at the end of the great alley. At that hour--you may
imagine! And the evening before he had declared himself indisposed. She
hurried on some clothes and flew down to him. One would be anxious for
less. He loves her, but not very intelligently. He had been up all
night, fully dressed, the poor old man, perfectly exhausted. He wasn't
in a state to invent a plausible story. . . . What a confidant you chose
there! My husband was furious. He said, 'We can't interfere now.' So we
sat down to wait. It was awful. And this poor child running with her
hair loose over here publicly! She has been seen by some people in the
fields. She has roused the whole household, too. It's awkward for her.
Luckily you are to be married next week. . . . Adele, sit up. He has
come home on his own legs. . . . We expected to see you coming on a
stretcher, perhaps--what do I know? Go and see if the carriage is ready.
I must take this child home at once. It isn't proper for her to stay
here a minute longer."

General D'Hubert did not move. It was as though he had heard nothing.
Madame Leonie changed her mind. "I will go and see myself," she cried.
"I want also my cloak.--Adele--" she began, but did not add "sit up."
She went out saying, in a very loud and cheerful tone: "I leave the door
open."

General D'Hubert made a movement towards the divan, but then Adele
sat up, and that checked him dead. He thought, "I haven't washed this
morning. I must look like an old tramp. There's