Then Louise walked one day into her father's salon while the old man, with Marie, sat and listened as young Havet read out Napoleon's latest bulletin. The Emperor had been in Paris for some little while, having deserted his army, and was already busy with his new project of raising 300,000 men, in order to regain the prestige he had undoubtedly lost in the disastrous Moscow campaign. "Stop, Havet, who is this that enters without knocking?" exclaimed old Dupré angrily; his temper had not improved of late, owing to the reverses of the French arms and the absence of news of Louise, as to whose safety neither his heart nor his conscience was at rest. Marie uttered a cry of delight. "Father, it is Louise!" she screamed. "Louise--sister. Oh, how thin, how worn, how----" The sisters embraced one another warmly; old Dupré held his daughter to his heart, endeavouring, after his manner, to suppress every sign of emotion. His arms came in contact with her epaulettes. "Why," he cried, "Marie, Havet, see what is here, the epaulettes of an officer; Louise, you have won promotion--glory--is it not so?" "I received a commission; what glory can any one claim--on our side--and such a war! There must be officers, nine in ten were killed; do not talk of the war, my father; are you well?" The old man gazed at his daughter in pride and exultation. "Listen to her modesty--no glory, says she; a little conscript returns a captain, and no glory! Hola, there, Havet, order food and wine. _Mon Dieu_, Louise, you have seen adversity, you are thin and in rags, to-morrow you shall have new uniform!--the Emperor already assembles a new army to chastise these Cossacks. _Mort de ma vie_, my daughter, you shall die a marshal, I swear it!" Louise did not think it necessary to chill the old man's happiness by telling him that to-morrow she would return to the ordinary costume of her sex; that she was sick of man's attire and of war and all that appertained to the profession of arms; that she was, indeed, weary of life itself and longed to be where Henri d'Estreville was, at rest among the frozen pine-trees in some snow-covered Russian forest. The evening proved a painful one for Louise, who did her best, however, to maintain a cheerful demeanour, while her father--to whom this was, perhaps, the happiest hour of his life--held forth upon his favourite theme of glory and honour and a marshal's baton in store for Louise, and so forth. Young Havet was to take part in the coming war; if possible he should enlist in Michel Prevost's regiment (the old man laughed heartily as he pronounced the name!), and perhaps Louise would do her best to assist him in his military career. When the trying evening was over and Louise parted with her sister for the night, Marie took her aside. "You are depressed, sister, what ails you?" she said. "Oh, I can see plainly that all is not well. Are you ill in body?"