"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. "I am very sorry, my dear Gerald, but I shall have to leave you."
"Already! And why?"
"I promised a worthy mason in the neighbourhood that I would go over his accounts with him this evening, and you have no idea what a task it is to straighten out books like his!"