The count sent his servant to Paris, with orders to have a post chaise with two good horses at the garden gate the next morning at daybreak. He proposed to accompany Sister Anne, and he went to the pavilion to tell her what he had determined upon.
His frequent going and coming led Dubourg to conclude that the count had some project in contemplation.
"We shall have a change here," he said to Ménard; "God grant that it may restore happiness and pleasure to this house!"
"It certainly hasn't been very gay here of late," said Ménard; "madame la comtesse sighs, my pupil is preoccupied, the dumb girl says nothing; and I can hardly recognize you yourself, my dear Dubourg."
"Well! how do you expect me to be in high spirits, when I see that all the people I love are unhappy? In spite of my philosophy, I am not insensible to my friends' suffering."
"You're like me; I think of it all day long."
"Indeed! but it doesn't take away your appetite."
"Would you have me make myself ill, to cheer them up?"
"You're not likely to; you're getting to be a regular ball!"
"That fool of a cook gives us beefsteak every day; how can I help growing fat?"