After talking till late I fell asleep, and when I woke to dress for
morning mass, I found that she had not slept at all, and had a
frightful headache. I bade her lie still till I came back, and she
seemed hardly able to believe in such luxury. Mademoiselle said
nothing but resolution was wanting to shake off a headache.
'Have you found it so?' I asked.
'At any rate, it is better than the doses Mademoiselle gives me,' she
said.
'You shall try my remedy this time,' I said; and I set out for the
little village church, which stood at the garden-gate, with a fixed
determination that this state of things--slow torture and murder, as
it seemed to me--should not go on. If one work bequeathed to me by
my dear Philippe was to take care of his uncle, another surely was to
save and protect his sister.
CHAPTER VIII.
MARGUERITE TO THE RESCUE.
It was in my favour that M. de Nidemerle had conceived a very high
opinion of me, far above my deserts. My dear husband's letters had
been full of enthusiasm for me. I found them all among the Marquis's
papers; and his tenderness and gratitude, together with the
circumstances of my return, had invested me with a kind of halo,
which made me a sort of heroine in his eyes.
Besides, I did my best to make the old man's life more cheerful. I
read him the Gazette that came once a week, I played at cards with
him all the evening, and I sometimes even wrote or copied his letters
on business; and, when I sat at my embroidery, he liked to come and
sit near me, sometimes talking, playing with Gaspard, or dozing.
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