"What
said the Intendant to you, on leaving the Chateau?"
"Oh, he spoke to me of you quite feelingly--that is, bade me take
the utmost care of the poor lady in the secret chamber. I was to
give you everything you wished, and keep off all visitors, if such
were your own desire."
A train of powder does not catch fire from a spark more quickly than
Caroline's imagination from these few words of the old housekeeper.
"Did he say that, good dame? God bless you, and bless him for those
words!" Her eyes filled with tears at the thought of his
tenderness, which, although half fictitious, she wholly believed.
"Yes, dame," continued she. "It is my most earnest desire to be
secluded from all visitors. I wish to see no one but yourself.
Have you many visitors--ladies, I mean--at the Chateau?"
"Oh, yes! the ladies of the city are not likely to forget the
invitations to the balls and dinners of the bachelor Intendant of
New France. It is the most fashionable thing in the city, and every
lady is wild to attend them. There is one, the handsomest and
gayest of them all, who, they say, would not object even to become
the bride of the Intendant.
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