A few days after this the marchioness, with her husband and cousin, were rambling over the grounds, when they found themselves at the entrance of a hermitage, where madame de l'Hôpital had told the marquis she had sat down to rest herself on the day of her failing to attend the dinner-hour. M. de l'Hôpital resumed the dispute, by protesting that from this situation the dinner-bell might easily be heard: the lady continued firm in protesting it could not, till, at last, feigning extreme anger, she exclaimed. "Well then, sir, since you refuse to believe _my_ assertion, go yourself and ring the bell as loudly as you please, your cousin will remain here with me, and determine if it be possible to distinguish the sound from here." The fool of a marquis set off in the height of his zeal to convince his wife, and, arriving at the turret where the bell was placed, began ringing it with all his might and main, leaving the lovers the undisturbed opportunity they were not slow in taking advantage of. When the marquis had ceased his chimes, the loving pair went to meet him. "Well, my good cousin," inquired he, as they approached, "which of us was right? Could you hear it or not?" "Yourself, most assuredly," replied the young man, not without a slight blush. "I can assure you that both madame and myself heard the bell the whole time you were ringing it." "There, I told you so; I told you so"; cried the delighted husband, triumphantly rubbing his hands. I thought when this lively and piquant adventure was related to me, that it was well worthy of being immortalized by the pen of a La Fontaine. The marchioness gave these anecdotes with a grace and talent peculiarly her own; and I sometimes imagined that some of the many she favored us with had perhaps taken place in a more recent period than that she assigned to them; and that, in order to divert our suspicions as to who were the real actors, she frequently substituted the _past_ for what should have been with more correctness the _present_ time. With manners so calculated to win, she could not fail being a delightful companion, altho' in my heart I could not help giving the preference to the society of the maréchale de Mirepoix.