"Oh! it is you, good dame!"--Caroline answered her own thoughts,
rather than the question,--"tell me what makes this unusual silence
in the Chateau?"
"The Intendant and all the guests have gone to the city, my Lady: a
great officer of the Governor's came to summon them. To be sure,
not many of them were fit to go, but after a deal of bathing and
dressing the gentlemen got off. Such a clatter of horsemen as they
rode out, I never heard before, my Lady; you must have heard them
even here!"
"Yes, dame!" replied Caroline, "I heard it; and the Intendant, has
he accompanied them?"
"Yes, my Lady; the freshest and foremost cavalier of them all. Wine
and late hours never hurt the Intendant. It is for that I praise
him, for he is a gallant gentleman, who knows what politeness is to
women."
Caroline shrank a little at the thought expressed by the dame.
"What causes you to say that?" asked she.
"I will tell, my Lady! 'Dame Tremblay!' said he, just before he
left the Chateau. 'Dame Tremblay'--he always calls me that when he
is formal, but sometimes when he is merry, he calls me 'Charming
Josephine,' in remembrance of my young days, concerning which he has
heard flattering stories, I dare say--"
"In heaven's name! go on, dame!" Caroline, depressed as she was,
felt the dame's garrulity like a pinch on her impatience.
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