with him all through the military manoeuvres in which he was now
engaged. But as both of them were equally charming in his mind, he
concluded he could not have fallen in love, or he would have known which
he admired the more.

He did not know how many were the suitors in Paris for Miss Bettina, and
possibly if he had seen the sisters among the fashionable people of that
gay city he would never have given them a second thought, for he was a
true son of the country, this healthy and manly young officer, whose
tastes were as simple as the surroundings in which he had grown up
demanded.

Miss Bettina, indeed, had only to say the word, and she might have been
the Princess Romanelli. "And I should like to be a princess, for the
name sounds well," she said to herself. "Oh, if I only loved him!" There
were many men of rank and title who would have been glad to have married
the wealthy young American lady, but she found herself in love with none
of them, and now she was looking forward to the fourteenth of June, when
she and her sister were to leave Paris for Longueval. During their stay
at the castle they were to entertain many friends, but for ten days they
were to be free to roam the woods and fields, and forget the
distractions of their fashionable life in the capital.

"But you forget," said Madame Scott, on their way to Longueval, "that we
are to have two people to dinner to-night."

"Ah, but I shall be glad to welcome both of them--particularly the young
lieutenant," Bettina confessed, with a touch of shyness.