"Oh! how impatient you are!—Well! if I must——"
The seal was broken, and the bath keeper unfolded a large sheet of paper, on which he read:
"The Marquis de Marvejols requests Master Hugonnet, bath keeper, and his daughter Ambroisine to accompany Bathilde Landry to his house to-morrow.
"He will expect them at two o'clock in the afternoon, all other affairs being put aside."
"What does this mean?" said Hugonnet, glancing at his daughter.
"It means, father, that I went, all alone, to see the old Seigneur de Marvejols, that I told him the whole story of his son's treatment of Bathilde, giving him as proof of what I said a letter that Monsieur Léodgard once wrote to my friend; and that I demanded justice at his hands for the victim of the seduction.—That is what I did, father, without asking Bathilde's permission."
"Nor mine either, I believe?"
"That is true, father. Are you angry with me for doing it? Do you think that I did wrong?"
Hugonnet reflected a moment, then cried:
"I' faith! no! You did not do wrong. But you should have told me.—No matter; kiss me; you are a good girl, a true friend.—Well! we will go to the marquis's to-morrow, and we will see what he has to say. After all, he cannot make it out a crime in us to take a poor child in, who was without a home and without means."