‘_Ciel!_’ exclaimed Mr. Lovett, losing his temper entirely. ‘What do you mean by talking to me in that manner when I haven’t got a five-franc piece in the house? Give it to them yourself if you are so anxious for their comfort; but get out of this room, and leave me in peace to finish my repast.’ Madame Marmoret immediately disappeared, and harmony was restored amongst us. But an ominous silence succeeded her departure. Tessie sat with eyes downcast upon her lap. Mr. Charteris whistled and looked out of the window. Ange seemed restlessly miserable. The cause of the disturbance tried to cheer up the spirits of his family, but, finding his remonstrances of no avail, took his hat and stick discontentedly and walked off to visit some of his friends. The girls disappeared together, as I thought, to their garden or the kitchen, and I retreated to the inner _salle_ to have another chat with Miss Braddon. When it grew too dusk to read I went upstairs, intending to finish some needlework or writing in my bedroom by the light of a little lamp which I had purchased for my own use with some of the money Mr. Warrington had sent me. But, passing the room occupied by the sisters, my attention was arrested by the sound of a low sobbing, and I entered it expecting to find my poor friend Tessie bewailing in secret the troubles she had to bear. To my surprise, however, it was not Tessie who was cast prostrate on the bed. It was Ange! ‘Ange, my child!’ I exclaimed. ‘What is the matter that you should weep like this?’ ‘Oh! don’t speak to me, Hilda,’ she said mournfully; ‘leave me to myself. It seems as if a great black cloud had come down over everything.’ Poor Ange! Dear, innocent Ange! So the curse had begun to work here also, and her fresh young life was to be involved in trouble like the rest. [Illustration: [Fleuron]] CHAPTER VI. SALLE DU SABBAT. How we all came to visit the _Grottes de S. Jean_ in one large party, I never quite made out, but the fact remains that we went. Some one proposed it, probably Miss Markham (for that gay young creature was always on the alert to concoct a plan by which she should secure the privilege of Mr. Charteris’s company), and some one agreed to it, but neither of them was I. I found myself one morning in the centre of a group consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Carolus, Sophy Markham, Arthur Thrale and Charlie Sandilands, Cave Charteris, and Ange and Tessie, all habited in walking costumes, and armed with thick sticks, ready to start on an expedition to these famous grottoes of stalactites, and I was told to put on my hat and accompany them.