ton, whom you hurt very much: and it is a horrible thing for a brother to try to kill his brother, especially the younger the elder; for, as my guardian says, some persons might say you wished to secure the title and estates of Montarnaud in addition to your own. And it was all a mistake too; for Gaston was wandering in the garden, to look at the light in my window, and vexing himself with fears that I should not accept his suit, and really took you for a robber. He is much better now, so much that to-morrow, or even to-night if possible, we are to set out for Paris, carrying him in a litter, and travelling by easy stages; for my guardian will no longer delay obeying the king's command, and says he would risk the lives of all belonging to him, and after all the rest his own, rather than further tempt the royal displeasure.
"Ah, François I my heart is not in what I have written, and you will again call me frivolous and heartless,—I know you will; but, dear, what can I do? My uncle would take me by main force if I resisted; he would kill me sooner than seem to disobey the king; and I,—well, then, I will be brave, at least, and say the truth,—I want to go. I do not love Gaston, I do not love, not really love, anybody; but I must see Versailles; I must breathe the air of the court; I must wave my wings like those great painted butterflies of our fair garden, in the perfumed sunshine of the royal presence. I shall be sorry, I know it already, but—I go!"
There was more of it; but at this last word the lover, muttering a black and bitter malediction, rent the sheet into twenty fragments, crushed them in his hand, and, flinging them upon the hearth, turned a ghastly face upon his tutor, saying,—
"So it is decided. She has gone with him to Paris!"
"Monsieur le Comte, with Mademoiselle de Rochenbois her attendants and Monsieur Gaston, left
