"Well, one day this Satan suddenly dropped down from the clouds, as cool as you please, though he hadn't set foot in my house for five or six years, and he has called several times since." "If he has taken to flattering you and paying court to you it can hardly be on his own account." "Evidently not, so I am convinced that M. de Maillefort has some ulterior motive, and I am resolved to discover this motive." "I'm sorry to learn that he's coming here again," said M. de la Rochaigue. "He is my greatest antipathy, my _bete noire_." "Oh, don't talk nonsense," exclaimed the baroness, impatiently; "we have got to put up with the marquis, there's no help for it. Besides, if a man of his position makes such advances to you, how will it be with others? This is an incontestable proof of our influence. Let us endeavour to profit by it in every possible way, and by and by, when the girl is ready to settle down, we shall be stupid indeed if we cannot induce her to make a choice that will be very advantageous to us." "You state the case admirably, my dear," said the baron, apparently much impressed, while Helena, who was evidently no less deeply interested, drew her chair closer to that of her brother and his wife. "And now had we better hasten or retard the moment when Ernestine makes her choice?" asked the baroness. "A very important question," said the baron. "My advice would be to defer any decision upon this subject for six months," said the baroness. "That is my opinion, too," exclaimed the baron, as if this statement of his wife's views had given him great inward satisfaction. "I agree with you perfectly, my brother, and with you, my sister," said Helena, who had listened silently and with downcast eyes to every word of the conversation. "Very well," said the baroness, evidently well pleased with this harmony of feeling. "And now there can be no doubt that we shall be able to conduct the affair to a successful termination, for we will all take a solemn oath, by all we hold most dear, to accept no suitor for Ernestine's hand, without warning and consulting one another." "To act alone or secretly would be an act of infamous, shameless, and horrible treachery," exclaimed the baron, as if shocked at the mere idea of such an atrocity. "_Mon Dieu!_" murmured Helena, clasping her hands. "Who could ever think of acting such a treacherous part?" "It would be an infamous act," said the baroness, in her turn, "and worse,--it would be a fatal blunder. We shall be strong if we act in unison, but weak, if we act independently of one another." "In union there is strength!" said the baron, sententiously. "So, unless we mutually agree upon a change of plan, we will defer all action on the subject of Ernestine's marriage for six months, in order that we may have time to strengthen our influence over her."