Blois we contrive better than that to do without papa's
consent. Ask Malicorne else!"

And at these words the girl pushed Raoul out of the room by
the shoulders. He glided swiftly down to the porch, regained
his horse, mounted, and set off as if he had had Monsieur's
guards at his heels.




CHAPTER 4

Father and Son.



Raoul followed the well-known road, so dear to his memory,
which led from Blois to the residence of the Comte de la
Fere.

The reader will dispense with a second description of that
habitation: he, perhaps, has been with us there before, and
knows it. Only, since our last journey thither, the walls
had taken a grayer tint, and the brickwork assumed a more
harmonious copper tone; the trees had grown, and many that
then only stretched their slender branches along the tops of
the hedges, now bushy, strong, and luxuriant, cast around,
beneath boughs swollen with sap, great shadows of blossoms
of fruit for the benefit of the traveler.