of housekeeper. An old friend of Adrienne's father, the Count de
Montbron, an accomplished old man, once very much in fashion, and still a
connoisseur in all sorts of elegances, had advised Adrienne to act like a
princess, and take an equerry; recommended for this office a man of good
rearing and ripe age, who, himself an amateur in horses, had been ruined
in England, at Newmarket, the Derby, and Tattersall's, and reduced, as
sometimes happened to gentlemen in that country, to drive the stage
coaches, thus finding an honest method of earning his bread, and at the
same time gratifying his taste for horses. Such was M. de Bonneville, M.
de Montbron's choice. Both from age and habits, this equerry could
accompany Mdlle. de Cardoville on horseback, and better than any one
else, superintend the stable. He accepted, therefore, the employment with
gratitude, and, thanks to his skill and attention, the equipages of
Mdlle. de Cardoville were not eclipsed in style by anything of the kind
in Paris. Mdlle. de Cardoville had taken back her women, Hebe, Georgette,
and Florine. The latter was at first to have re-entered the service of
the Princess de Saint-Dizier, to continue her part of spy for the
superior of St. Mary's Convent; but, in consequence of the new direction
given by Rodin to the Rennepont affair, it was decided that Florine, if
possible, should return to the service of Mdlle. de Cardoville. This
confidential place, enabling this unfortunate creature to render
important and mysterious services to the people who held her fate in
their hands, forced her to infamous treachery. Unfortunately, all things
favored this machination. We know that Florine, in her interview with
Mother Bunch, a few days after Mdlle. de Cardoville was imprisoned at Dr.
Baleinier's, had yielded to a twinge of remorse, and given to the
sempstress advice likely to be of use to Adrienne's interests--sending
word to Agricola not to deliver to Madame de Saint Dizier the papers
found in the hiding-place of the pavilion, but only to entrust them to
Mdlle. de Cardoville herself. The latter, afterwards informed of these