"I will not forget," replied he, with a twinge of jealousy. "Le
Gardeur shall come back in a few days or De Pean has lost his
influence and cunning."
Angelique gave him a sharp glance of approval, but made no further
remark. A crowd of voluble ladies were all telling over the
incidents of the ball, as exciting as any incidents of flood and
field, while they arranged themselves for departure.
The ball was fast thinning out. The fair daughters of Quebec, with
disordered hair and drooping wreaths, loose sandals, and dresses
looped and pinned to hide chance rents or other accidents of a long
night's dancing, were retiring to their rooms, or issuing from them
hooded and mantled, attended by obsequious cavaliers to accompany
them home.
The musicians, tired out and half asleep, drew their bows slowly
across their violins; the very music was steeped in weariness. The
lamps grew dim in the rays of morning, which struggled through the
high windows, while, mingling with the last strains of good-night
and bon repos, came a noise of wheels and the loud shouts of valets
and coachmen out in the fresh air, who crowded round the doors of
the Palace to convey home the gay revellers who had that night
graced the splendid halls of the Intendant.
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