"A gentleman who came on board to speak to you; and who assisted you to land: and with whom you were walking about afterwards, while the other ladies were in the custom-house?"
"Oh, I recollect; yes. There was a gentleman who came on board: it was Monsieur de Mellissie." Very brilliant had Miss Chandos's cheeks become; but she turned her face to the desk as if anxious to continue her studies, and Mademoiselle Barlieu saw it not.
"What took him on board?" resumed Mademoiselle Annette.
"As if I knew, Mademoiselle Annette!" lightly replied the young lady. "He may have wanted to speak to the captain—or to some of the sailors—or to me. He did not tell me."
"But you were promenading with him afterwards!"
"And very polite of him it was to give up his time to promenade with me, while I was waiting for them to come out," replied Miss Chandos. "I returned him my thanks for it, Mademoiselle Annette. If the new English teacher had had a thousand boxes to clear, she could not have been much longer over it. I thought she was never coming."
"Well, my dear, do not promenade again with Monsieur de Mellissie. It is not the right thing for a young lady to do; and Miladi Chandos might not be pleased that you should."
"On the contrary, Mademoiselle Annette, mamma charged me with twenty messages to give him, in trust for his mother," replied the undaunted girl. "I was glad of an opportunity of delivering them."
Mademoiselle Annette said no more. She charged the girls as she quitted the room to get ready their geography books, for she should return for that class in five minutes.
"I say, Emily Chandos, whatever is all that about?" asked a young lady, Ellen Roper.