stay here until the General returns?"

"I shall be happy to see the General, if you will inclose my
address in your letter to him."

Replying in those terms, I wrote the address for the second time.
Lady Claudia knew perfectly well, when I gave it to her, that I
was going to a respectable house kept by a woman who had nursed
me when I was a child.

"One last question," she said. "Am I to tell the General that it
is your intention to marry your groom?"

Her tone stung me into making an answer which I regretted the
moment it had passed my lips.

"You can put it more plainly, if you like," I said. "You can tell
the General that it is my intention to marry _your_ son."

She was near the door, on the point of leaving me. As I spoke,
she turned with a ghastly stare of horror--felt about her with
her hands as if she was groping in darkness--and dropped on the
floor.

I instantly summoned help. The women-servants carried her to my
bed. While they were restoring her to herself, I wrote a few
lines telling the miserable woman how I had discovered her
secret.

"Your husband's tranquillity," I added, "is as precious to me as