her he despoils the gardens of Sairmeuse."

"What are you saying about flowers?" inquired the impoverished relative.

Mlle. Blanche replied that she had not made the slightest allusion to
flowers. She was suffocating--and yet she compelled herself to remain
there three mortal hours--all the time that was required to unload the
furniture.

The wagons had been gone some time, when Martial again appeared upon the
threshold.

Marie-Anne had accompanied him to the door, and they were talking
together. It seemed impossible for him to make up his mind to depart.

He did so, at last, however; but he left slowly and with evident
reluctance. Marie-Anne, remaining in the door, gave him a friendly
gesture of farewell.

"I wish to speak to this creature!" exclaimed Mlle. Blanche. "Come,
aunt, at once!"

Had Marie-Anne, at that moment, been within the reach of Mlle. de
Courtornieu's voice, she would certainly have learned the secret of her
former friend's anger and hatred.

But fate willed it otherwise. At least three hundred yards of rough
ground separated the place where Mlle. Blanche had stationed herself,
from the Lacheneur cottage.