guests are not very particular if the wine flows freely. I do not think
the young lady likes the position, for I know the old, be-spectacled
professors are as pestering with their attentions as the insolent
officers. She would have been so delighted at the relief promised by
your return that she would run to meet you and you would not have been
repulsed at the door."

"I daresay," replied Madame Clemenceau, frowning, and tapping the waxed
wood floor impatiently with her foot. "I did not care to announce my
return home with a flourish of trumpets. I was not averse to taking the
house by surprise, and seeing what a transformation has gone on since I
went away. Besides, it is desirable, not to say necessary, that I should
speak with you before seeing the others."

Hedwig pouted a little.

"You ought to have written to me, madame, as we were agreed, I thought;
I have been on tenderhooks because of your silence. I did not even guess
where you were."

"I did not wish it known for a while, and even then, it appears, I spoke
too soon," said Césarine gloomily.

"You did not want me to know, madame?" questioned the servant in
surprise and with a trace of suspicion.

"Not even you," and hanging her head, she sank into meditation, not
pleasant, to judge by her hopeless expression.

The servant, who had the phlegmatic brain of her people, was stupefied