l the other creatures who were bustling like ants below
her feet. Her gray eyes, sparkling with fun, now positively flamed.
Given over to her passion, she avoided admiration with as much care
as the proudest devote to encouraging it when they drive about Paris,
certainly feeling no care as to whether her fair countenance leaning
over the balcony, or her little foot between the bars, and the picture
of her bright eyes and delicious turned-up nose would be effaced or no
from the minds of the passers-by who admired them; she saw but one
face, and had but one idea. When the spotted head of a certain bay
horse happened to cross the narrow strip between the two rows of houses,
Caroline gave a little shiver and stood on tiptoe in hope of recognizing
the white traces and the color of the tilbury. It was he!

Roger turned the corner of the street, saw the balcony, whipped the
horse, which came up at a gallop, and stopped at the bronze-green door
that he knew as well as his master did. The door of the apartment was
opened at once by the maid, who had heard her mistress' exclamation of
delight. Roger rushed up to the drawing-room, clasped Caroline in his
arms, and embraced her with the effusive feeling natural when two beings
who love each other rarely meet. He led her, or rather they went by a
common impulse, their arms about each other, into the quiet and fragrant
bedroom; a settee stood ready for them to sit by the fire, and for a
moment they looked at each other in silence, expressing their happiness
only by their clasped hands, and communicating their thoughts in a fond
gaze.

"Yes, it is he!" she said at last. "Yes, it is you. Do you know, I have
not seen you for three long days, an age!--But what is the matter? You
are unhappy."

"My poor Caroline--"

"There, you see! 'poor Caroline'--"

"No, no, do not laugh, my darling; we cannot go to the Feydeau Theatre
together this evening."

Caroline put on a little pout, but it vanished immediately.

"How absurd I am! How can I think of going to the play when I see you?
Is not the sight of you the only spectacle I care for?" she cried,
pushing her fingers through Roger's hair.

"I am obliged to go to the Attorney-General's. We have a knotty case in
hand. He met me in the great hall at the Palais; and as I am to plead,
he asked me to dine with him. But, my dearest, you can go to the theatre
with your mother, and I will join you if the meeting breaks up early."

"To the the