"`Only last night,' said Nanette. `But I am not tired now. Yesterday was very pleasant; father drove the light cart over to Machard to meet me. The two days before in the diligence--ah, that was tiring. My great-uncle Ludovic came the first day's journey with me, by my lady's wish; you see what care she takes of me--of every one about her.' "`As ever--our dear lady!' said Madame Germain. "`Ah, if there were more like her!' said Nanette. `Things and feelings would not be what they are coming to, if there had been more like her. The Marquise now--for all she looks so tiny and delicate--ah! she has a hard and cruel heart--or no heart at all. She is a fit wife for her husband. And how they are hated! Worse than ever, I believe.' "`By those about them in Paris, do you mean?' said the father Germain. `At Sarinet he is now almost a stranger. All these years, I think, he has never been back again.' "`And do you not know why?' said Nanette. `'Tis said he dare not--and yet at worst he is a _brave_ man. Perhaps after all he has some conscience left, and shrinks from seeing the utter wretchedness he has caused. We passed through many villages on our way, but in none did I see more hideous misery than at Sarinet. My lord is always short of money now--he spends so much in every way--and they do say that he and the Marquise too lose great sums at play. And when the money runs dry it is always the same thing. "Get it out of those lazy hounds of mine at Sarinet," writes my lord to his bailiff, and then the screw is put on again, ever tighter and tighter. Ah, it is horrible!' and Nanette shuddered. "Germain looked up at her in surprise. She had changed. It was not like the simple, light-hearted girl of three years ago to speak so forcibly, or to feel things so deeply. "`How have you heard so much, my girl?' he said.