"Who is gone?" exclaimed Eugenie, starting up, and hurriedly wiping the tears from her eyes, that she might gaze the more intently upon the speaker. "Who is gone? Who may not return for months?" "The Count d'Aubin, lady," replied the girl. "Madame de Montpensier bade me tell you so, and gave me this note to be delivered to you, when you were well enough to read it." "Give it to me--give it to me now," cried Eugenie; and tearing it open, she held it to the light, gazing with eager eyes upon the contents. It was very brief, but almost every word spoke comfort, for they went to inform her that the Count d'Aubin, on business of importance, had been obliged to set off for Maine; that the period of his return was not decided, but that it certainly could not take place before the end of the month, while it might be delayed longer; and though the conclusion of the letter went to say, that both the Duke of Mayenne and Madame de Montpensier trusted that, ere the Count's return, Mademoiselle de Menancourt would have made up her mind to receive him as her husband, and to sign the formal contract of marriage, yet the intelligence of his absence was a reprieve; and imagination fondly clinging to the uncertainty of the future, at once renewed hope in her bosom. With hope came back the spirit of exertion which had been crushed beneath despair. Dropping the note upon the table, as the lightning progress of thought ran on in an instant from one object to another, she clasped her hands, exclaiming, "Where, where! can Beatrice of Ferrara be? She must be ill, or she would have come to me, I am sure." "Shall we send, and see, lady?" demanded one of the women. "Yes, yes! do so," replied Eugenie, "and leave me alone for half an hour; I would fain think--I would fain consider what is best to be done! I am better, indeed I am better now," she added, seeing the women look at her with some hesitation. "Stay in the ante-room, and I will call, if I want you." The women obeyed; and Eugenie, leaning on the table, covered her eyes with her hands, and remained endeavouring to reduce, to some definite and feasible plan, the vague hopes of relief which she had again conceived. But the effects of the agitation she had suffered still remained, and she found it impossible to fix her thoughts upon the future, so perseveringly did they wander back to the past.