'Countess—silence!' said Nicola, with beautiful scorn; 'speak no more of her, and let me endeavour to forget the hated companionship and collusion which I had with her—circumstances in which the force of political events involved me.'
'Do you speak thus of your old mistress?'
Nicola laughed, and then grew angry again. 'My mistress!' she reiterated; 'my poor M. Blane, you are a very good kind of creature——'
'Mademoiselle,' said I, with a sombre bow, 'I thank you for your patronage.'
'But you know not whom you address, whom you speak of, or what you say.'
'Such a spoiled child it is! we have become suddenly quite angry on one side, and quite stupid on the other it appears. But this Countess d'Amboise seems to be quite your bête noir, Nicola.'
'Silence!' said she, becoming angry again, and with her riding switch giving me a smart tap over the bridle hand—so smart indeed that had not my thick military glove protected me, I must have dropped both curb and snaffle reins. 'Silence, and say no more of this.'
'Of what?—you quite puzzle me!'
'Thank Heaven, yonder are the spires of Chalons!'
'You early warned me to beware of the Countess, dear Nicola.'