After a few weeks had gone by, Madame la Comtesse gave orders to her servants not to admit anyone, old or young, man or woman, into the presence of M. le Comte. The servants assured her that they would obey her to the very letter. They loved her because she was so bright and gay and obliging. They did not in the least mind whether she kept a _magasin_ or not. Did she not load them with gifts? Was there ever quite so good a place to serve in as the Château St. Juste? Yes, they loved Madame, and they adored _la petite_ Comtesse. But it so happened that the old M. le Comte, lying against his pillows of down, thought a great deal about his granddaughter. Henri was indeed a boy to be proud of, but after all he was nothing to _la petite_. He wasted _l'argent_; _la petite_ seemed never to spend anything. Was justice being done to this charming little creature by the father of Henri? He troubled himself about this. He became anxious. One day he spoke to Madame la Comtesse. "Madame," he said, "thou hast given up thy _établissement_?" "Ah, _oui_, _certainement_, Alphonse," was the quick answer of Madame. "Tell me now from the bottom of thy heart, Madame, what provision we can make for _la petite_ Comtesse." Madame named a sum which certainly staggered the old man. "Thou must be _très riche_," he said. "Ah, _oui_, it is the will of God!" replied Madame. Then she added, stroking his silvery hair and laying her piquant face close to his. "Dost thou not remember, thou superb, angelic one, that on the day we received la Comtesse, a notary came and settled on her the sum I have mentioned?" "Ah, _oui_," answered M. le Comte. "I remember and yet I forget. The aged, they always forget. It is the trial of old age not to remember." "It is _un fait accompli_," said Madame. "Fret not thyself, _chère_ Alphonse." The old Comte smiled. "I like to think of our little one," he said, "always and ever surrounded by the luxuries of life. When she is older, much older, we will marry her to a man, young and beautiful and of great rank. She is worthy of the best and she shall have the best." "_Mais oui, mais oui_," answered Madame. "But I have been thinking," pursued M. le Comte, "that her education is not progressing. We could not permit her to return to the school, where that ugly M'selle was taught to tell the black lies." "_Non_," said Madame. "_Certainement, non._" "But I want her to go to a school," said M. le Comte. "Why dost thou frown, my adored Ninon?" "Because I am thinking," she replied. "There is but one school in Arles worthy of _la petite_, and that is held by la Princesse de Pleury; but alas, even that school is not what it used to be. There used to be there only _les demoiselles_ the most refined, the highest in rank." "Not the grass-green, ha! ha!" laughed the Comte.