ter room at the same moment caught their attention, and
they heard the courier of Lady Hester in deep converse with Mademoiselle
Celestine. He, deploring the two hours he had passed in hunting after
his mistress through the dark streets of the village; and she, not less
eloquently, bewailing the misery of a night spent in that comfortless
cabin. "To visit a wretched dwarf, too! Parbleu! had it been a
rendezvous with some one worth while, but an excursion without an
object, sans emotion meme, it is too bad!"

"Que voulez-vous!" said Monsieur Gregoire, with a shrug of the
shoulders; "she is English!"

"Ah! that is no reason for a vulgar caprice, and I, for one, will not
endure it longer. I cannot do so. Such things compromise one's self.
I 'll give warning to-morrow. What would my poor dear mistress, la
Marquise, say, if she only knew how mes petits talents were employed?"

"Do not be rash, mademoiselle," interposed the courier; "they are rich,
very rich, and we are going to Italy too, the real pays de Cocagne of
our profession."

How far his persuasions might have gone in inducing her to reconsider
her determination there is no saying, when they were suddenly
interrupted by Lady Hester's appearance.

Her first care was to ascertain that her absence from the hotel had not
been remarked, her secret, as she loved to fancy it, remained sacred.
Having learned thus much, she listened with a kind of childish pleasure
to the courier's version of all his unhappy wanderings in search of
her, until he at last descried a light, the only one that shone from any
window in the whole village.

As Gregoire had provided himself with a sufficient number of shawls,
cloaks, and clogs, and as the storm had now passed over, Lady Hester
prepared to take her leave, delighted with her whole night's adventure.
There had been excitement enough to make it all she could desire; nor
did she well know whether most to admire her heroism during the storm,
or the success with which she captivated the two sisters; the courage
which planned the expedition, or the grace with which it was executed.

"You'll come and see me, Miss Dalton; mind, I'm always at home.
Remember, Miss Kate Dalton, that they must not deny me to you" said
she, in her most winning of manners. The two girls gave their promise in
bashful diffidence, while she continued,

"You'll say to your papa, too, that Sir Stafford will wait on him
whenever he is able to leave the house. Mr.