"It does not appear to me likely. She definitely decli--i--ined."
"Did she tell you so? Did she speak to you on the subject?" asked Maurice, hastily.
For the first time during the interview, M. de Bois betrayed a slight disquietude, but he quickly collected himself and answered,--
"I heard Lady Vivian speak to Mademoiselle Bertha of the offer she had made her cousin, and after that, Mademoiselle Mad--ad--adeleine told me she had declined the prop--op--oposition. But, if you imagine she has changed her mind, would not a letter to Lady Vivian answer every pur--ur--urpose?"
"No; if she should be there, I must see her, and use arguments which would have no force upon paper. _She must be there!_ Where else could she be? I will start for Scotland to-night. Now I must bid you adieu."
"If you are going back to the château, I will accompany you. I must make my _adieux_ to the ladies. I leave for Paris to-morrow."
"Prob--ob--obably. The Marquis de Fleury had promised me a secretaryship, if he were sent as ambassador to America. It is uncertain when he may get the appointment, but he has offered me the post of confidential sec--ec--ecretary at once."
"Ah, M. de Bois, how I envy you! _You_ will have an object in life, while _I_, who feel as though a pent-up volcano were roaring within me, am condemned to let my struggling energies smoulder beneath the ashes of my father's autocratic will! You have heard of his opposition to my studying for the bar? What is to become of me if I am deprived of every stimulating incentive to action?--especially now--now that"--he checked himself suddenly. He was not aware that M. de Bois had been informed by Bertha of Madeleine's rejection, and Maurice could not dwell upon his own disappointment to one who might be a rival.
"Count Tristan may gradually be brought to contemplate your wishes with more favor."
"Hardly; but come--if you will accompany me, let us go."
Bertha, who had been waiting impatiently for the return of Maurice, did not fly to meet him when she saw M. de Bois walking by his side, as they approached the château. The countess was in the drawing-room when the gentlemen entered, and her majestic presence stemmed the stream of inquiries that was ready to gush from Bertha's lips.