seeing through the latticed gate the little party in the arbour, approached, and, raising his hand to his hat, said:
"Gentlemen, will you be so kind as to tell me if this garden belongs to No. 7?"
"Yes," replied the commander.
"And to the apartment on the ground floor of that house?"
"Yes."
"I rang that bell three times, but no one answered it."
"I occupy that apartment," said the commander, greatly surprised. "What do you want?"
"Here is a very important letter for a Madame Barbançon, who, I am told, lives here."
"Yes, she does live here," replied the veteran, more and more surprised.
Then, seeing the housekeeper at the other end of the garden, he called out to her:
"Mother Barbançon, the door-bell has rung three times, unanswered, while you've been trespassing upon my preserves. Come quick! Here is a letter for you."
CHAPTER IV.
THE DUCHESS.
Madame Barbançon promptly responded to this peremptory summons, and, after a hasty apology to her employer, said to the waiting servant:
"You have a letter for me? From whom?"
"From the Comtesse de Beaumesnil, madame," replied the man, handing Madame Barbançon the letter through the lattice.
"Madame la Comtesse de Beaumesnil?" exclaimed the astonished housekeeper; "I do not know her. I not only don't know her, but I haven't the slightest idea who she is—not the slightest," the worthy woman repeated, as she opened the letter.
"The Comtesse de Beaumesnil?" inquired Gerald, evidently much interested.
"Do you know her?" asked Olivier.
"I met her two or three years ago," replied Gerald. "She was wonderfully beautiful, then, but the poor woman has not left her bed for a year. I understand that hers is a hopeless case. Worse still, M. de Beaumesnil, who had gone to Italy with their only child, a daughter, who was ordered south by the physicians—M. de Beaumesnil died quite recently in Naples, in consequence of having been thrown from his horse, so if Madame de Beaumesnil dies, as they apprehend, her daughter will be left an orphan at the age of fifteen or sixteen years."
"Poor child! This is really very sad," said the commander, sympathisingly.
"Nevertheless, Mlle. de Beaumesnil has a brilliant future before her," continued Gerald, "for she will be the richest heiress in France. The Beaumesnil property yields an income of over three million francs!"
"Three million francs!" exclaimed Olivier, laughing. "Can it be that there are people who really have an income of three million francs? Do such people come and go, and move about and talk, just like other people? I should certainly like to be brought face to face with one of these wonderful creatures, Gerald."
"I'll do my best to gratify you, but I warn you that as a general thing they are not pleasant to contemplate. I am not referring to Mlle. de Beaumesnil, however; she may be as beautiful as her mother."
"I should like very much to know how one can spend such an income as that," said the commander, in all sincerity, emptying the ashes from his pipe.
"Great Heavens! is it possible?" exclaimed Madame Barbançon, who, in the meantime, had read the letter handed to her. "I am to go in a carriage—in a carriage like that?"
"What is the matter, Mother Barbançon?" inquired the veteran.
"I must ask you to let me go away for a little while."
"Certainly, but where are you going, may I ask?"
"To the house of Madame de Beaumesnil," replied the good woman, in a very important tone. "She desires some information which I alone can give, it seems. May I turn Bonapartist if I know what to make of all this!"
But the next instant the former midwife uttered an exclamation, as if a new and startling idea had just occurred to her, and, turning to her employer, she said:
"Monsieur, will you step out into the garden a moment with me? I want to say a word to you in private."
"Oh," replied the veteran, following the lady out of the arbour, "it is an important matter, it seems. Go on; I am listening, Madame Barbançon."
The housekeeper, having led her employer a short distance from the arbour, turned to him and said, with a mysterious air:
"Monsieur, do you know Madame Herbaut, who lives on the second floor and has two daughters? The lady to whom I introduced M. Olivier about a fortnight ago, you recollect."
"I don't know her, but you have often spoken to me about her. Well, what of it?"
"I recollect now that one of her particular friends, Madame Laîné, is now in Italy, acting as governess to the daughter of a countess whose name sounds something like Beaumesnil. In fact, it may be this very same countess."
"It may be, I admit, Mother Barbançon. Well, go on."
"And she may have heard about me through Madame Laîné, whom I have met at Madame Herbaut's."
"That, too, is very possible, Madame Barbançon. You will soon know for a certainty, however, as you are going to Madame Beaumesnil's."
"Mon Dieu! monsieur, another idea has just occurred to me."
"Let us hear it," said the veteran, with infinite patience.
"I have told you about that masked lady who—"
"You're not going to tell that story again, surely!" cried the commander, with the evident intention of beating a retreat.
"No, monsieur, but what if all this should have some connection with that young lady?"
"The quickest way to ascertain, Mother Barbançon, is to get off as soon as possible. We shall both be the gainers by it."
"You are right, monsieur. I will go at once."
And following her employer, who had returned to his guests in the arbour, the housekeeper said to the footman, who was still standing a few feet from the gate:
"Young man, as soon as I can get my bonnet and shawl on I shall be at your service."
And a few minutes afterwards Madame Barbançon, triumphantly passing the gate in her carriage, felt that the deference due her employer made it incumbent upon her to rise to her feet in the vehicle, and bow low to the commander and his guests.
Just then the clock in a neighbouring church struck seven.
"Seven o'clock!" exclaimed Olivier, evidently much annoyed.
