"No, I must find an officer to whom to confide him. It should not be difficult. And after that I must see the Prince without delay; I am already four or five days late, and as usual there is some business about landing muskets." The light that had sprung into his mother's eyes died out of them. "Surely, if you are not going to England, you could stay here this one night?" La Vireville bent forward and kissed her. "We will see, my heart. Meanwhile, I leave M. le Comte in your charge." (3) A couple of hours later he returned with a young man in uniform, and Mr. Francis Tollemache, of His Britannic Majesty's Navy, had his first glimpse of a French interior. "My mother speaks a little English," said La Vireville encouragingly in that tongue, "and Anne is fluent except when he talks Scotch. The _Pomone_ is sailing for Weymouth this afternoon," he explained to Mme. de la Vireville. "Her captain will give Anne a passage, and Mr. Tollemache, who has a few days' leave on arrival, will be kind enough to take him to London with him." And while his mother started to captivate the young lieutenant, La Vireville took his travelling companion on his knee and told him what had been arranged. Anne-Hilarion quietly hid his face in the émigré's breast, and the latter half thought that he was crying--a rare occurrence. "You will not mind, will you, Anne, that I do not come with you?" he asked coaxingly. "They will be very kind to you on board the man-of-war, and you will like to see a frigate. In a few days you will be back with Grandpapa; I don't suppose Papa will have got home yet. Think how anxious they must be about you in Cavendish Square!" But Anne would say nothing save, in a little voice, "I wish you were coming, M. le Chevalier; I wish you were coming!" And La Vireville, holding him tight, was surprised to find how much he wished he were. "You promised to be my uncle in England also," said the little boy presently in rather a melancholy voice. "Well, so I will, my child, when next I come over. But I have my folk in Brittany to look after now. You remember Grain d'Orge and the rest, don't you?" Meanwhile Mr. Tollemache, at the other side of the room, had brought about the very catastrophe he wished to avoid, having from sheer apprehension talked in his own tongue (he knew no other) so fast and so loud to Mme. de la Vireville that he had caused the complete shipwreck of what had never been a very sea-worthy vessel--her English. She had therefore relapsed into French and he into silence. Perceiving this, La Vireville put down Anne and went over to them. "Suppose, ma mère," he suggested, "that we leave the fellow-travellers to make each other's acquaintance without us?" And the next moment the Comte de Flavigny and Mr. Tollemache were left alone.