"This, madam," replied the baron, bitterly, "is a cousin of mine, Henry de Cerons, son of another cousin, Henry de Cerons, who has done me the honour of living in my house for the last twenty years." The blood came up into my cheeks as I heard him speak. "I have been, madam," I said, taking up the words immediately, "a poor pensioner upon my cousin's bounty since the period that he speaks of. It was then that the death of my noble father left me dependant, with nothing but a sword, which he had rendered glorious, for my future fortune." "It proved but a poor fortune to him," replied my cousin, frowning at me; "and you have suffered it somewhat to rust in the scabbard, methinks, Master Henry." "At your own request for the last two years, my lord," I replied, "and it shall do so no longer." I was going to add more, though I saw that the baron's mood was becoming every moment more and more fierce. But the eyes of both at that moment fell upon Louise, and we beheld the tears running through her long eyelashes and down her cheeks. "Come, come, no more, no more," he said; "let us drop such subjects, and not make the evening bitter. Madam, I will show you your apartments. Supper, I hope, will soon be ready." "And the baron in a better humour," said the lady, giving a sarcastic look round as she swept up the hall after him. We left her lord and the attendants to show her the way; and the five who had tenanted the castle before her coming remained behind in the hall, gazing upon each other, while memory again drew a comparison between the present and the past, the most painful, the most bitter that it is possible to conceive. No one spoke; the sensations in the heart of every one were too dark and sad for us to give them utterance; and, before a word was uttered, the baron had returned. How the cheerful meal of supper passed over that night in the chateau of Blancford may be easily conceived, for the same spirit which had marked the return of the lord of that castle to his dwelling pervaded the whole conversation. Why or how he had been induced to wed the woman whom he had brought thither might be difficult to say; but it was very evident that where there could never have been any esteem there now remained no affection. We were all silent but the lord and lady of the house, except when, from time to time, good Monsieur la Tour endeavoured to break the restraint by a word upon some ordinary subject, or when I replied to him, which act seemed not a little to create the baron's surprise that I should presume to converse in his presence.