"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: