'You Frenchmen are _so_ gallant!' was the reply.

A little while afterwards, somebody proposed a game of whist. There
was an objection to 'dead-man,' and Penelope, with a semi-oriental
salaam, offered to 'take a hand.' Madame de Mourairef was graciously
pleased to order her to do so. We shuffled, cut, and played; and when
midnight came, and it was necessary to retire, I felt almost afraid to
examine into my own heart, lest I might find that the soubrette
appeared to me at least as high-bred as the mistress.

We spent some delightful evenings in this manner, and perhaps still
more delightful days, for by degrees we became inseparable, and all
our walks and drives were made in common. The garçon often looked
maliciously at me, even offered once or twice to develop his Art of
Love; but I did not choose to be interrupted in my physiognomical
studies, and gave him no opportunity.

A picnic was proposed, and agreed upon. We intended at first to go to
Chambord; but there was danger of a crowd; and a valley on the road to
Vendôme was pitched upon. A _calèche_ took us to the place, and set us
down in a delightful meadow, enamelled with flowers, as all meadows
are in poetry. A few great trees, forming almost a grove, shaded a
slope near the banks of a sluggish stream that crept along between an
avenue of poplars. Here the cloth was laid at once for breakfast; and
whilst M. Jerome and the princess strolled away to talk of blighted
hopes, Russia, serfdom, wedlock, and the conflagration of the Kremlin,
Penelope made the necessary preparation; and I, in my character of a
fidgety old gentleman, first advised and then assisted her. I am
afraid the young damsel had designs upon my heart, for she put several
questions to me on the state of vassalage in England; and when I