Mademoiselle sound asleep on the bench, bag, smile, and all, gazed at and guarded by the dreaded soldiers.
"I am afraid," said Pascal Grousset, "that you have been greatly annoyed this morning. Your interview with the Prefect must have been most painful to you!"
"I confess," I said, "it has never been my fate to have been placed in just such a situation, and I thank you, de tout mon coeur, for your assistance. You certainly saved my life, for I doubt if I could have lived another moment in that room."
"Perhaps more than your life, Madame; more than you imagine, at any rate."
As he put us in the carriage, he looked puzzled when he saw le mari I had said was waiting for me; but a smile of comprehension swept over his face as he met my guilty glance. He apparently understood my reasons.
On reaching home, tired, exhausted, and oh! so hungry, we found Mr. Washburn. He and Mr. Moulton had been very anxious about me, picturing to themselves all sorts of horrors, and when I told them what really had happened they felt that their anxieties had not been far from the truth. Mr. Washburn laughed at the subterfuges I had used and the lie I had told. They examined my passport as a great curiosity, and noticed it had Valable pour un an.
Mr. Washburn said, "Evidently they intend this sort of thing to go on forever."
23d of April.
Mrs. Moulton has decided to leave for Dinard, and starts the day after to- morrow.
We have been assured that the train would make connections as far at least as Rennes; beyond that no one could tell whether they went regularly or not.