' [he did not know I was
within hearing, for I had gone in to give Tryphena orders about the
room he would occupy.] 'Beside, it is a son.'
'I hope one day to have a daughter whom I shall love the more, the
more she resembles her mother,' said my husband, to tease him.
'Bah! You will not have to detest her keeping you back from glory!
Tell me, Philippe, could a lettre de cachet reach me here?'
'We are on French soil. What have you been doing, Armand?'
'Only flying from inglorious dullness, my friend. Do not be
scandalized, but let me know how soon I can reach the hero of France,
and enroll myself as a volunteer.'
'The Duke is at Binche. I must return thither tomorrow. You had
better eat and sleep here tonight, and then we can decide what is to
be done.'
'I may do that,' the youth said, considering. 'My grandfather could
hardly obtain an order instantaneously, and I have a fair start.'
So M. de Bellaise lent him some clothes, and he appeared at supper as
a handsome lively-looking youth, hardly come to his full height, for
he was only seventeen, with a haughty bearing, and large, almost
fierce dark eyes, under eyebrows that nearly met.
At supper he told us his story. He was, as you know the only scion
of the old house of Aubepine, his father having been killed in a
duel, and his mother dying at his birth. His grandparents bred him
up with the most assiduous care, but (as my husband told me) it was
the care of pride rather than of love.
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