"Good heavens, madame!" exclaimed Zerbinette, springing up in alarm, "there's somebody in the cave. Didn't you hear that noise?" "Yes, I heard it," replied the intrepid dowager, "what of it?" "Oh, madame, let us get away as quick as we can." "I sha'n't do anything of the kind." "But that noise, madame." "He, he!" laughed the countess. "Perhaps it is the soul of the poor president come back to count one, two, three, four, etc. Sit down, and don't interrupt me again." "You have always had the courage of a dragon, madame." "There's no cause for alarm, you goose. Some osprey or some wild animal may have sought shelter there. I want to know who that big hulking boy was that Raoul saw with that Bastien woman,--her brother, eh?" "No, madame, her son." "Her son; why, in that case--" "She was married when she was very young, and she is so admirably preserved that she doesn't look a day over twenty." "That must be so, for Raoul took a desperate fancy to her. 'She has big, dark blue eyes, grandmother,' he said to me, 'a waist one can span with his two hands, and features as regular as those on an antique cameo. Only these plebeians are so little versed in the customs of good society that this one opened her big eyes in astonishment, merely because I was polite enough to take her a mantle she had dropped.' 'If she is as pretty as you say, you young simpleton, you ought to have kept the mantle, and taken it to her house. That would have gained you an entrance there.' 'But, grandmother,' replied the dear boy, very sensibly, 'it was by returning the mantle I found out that she was so pretty.'" "Oh, well, M. Raoul could easily have gone to her house a few days afterward. She would have been delighted to see him, even if it were only to make all the _bourgeoisie_ in the country, wild with envy." "That is exactly what I told the dear child, but he did not dare to venture." "Give him a little time, and he'll get his courage up, never fear." "I tell you, my girl," resumed the dowager, after quite a long silence, as she slowly and thoughtfully took another pinch of snuff, "I tell you that the more I think of it, the more convinced I am that for many reasons this little Bastien would just suit the dear boy, that she would be a perfect godsend to him, in fact." "I think so, too, madame." "So we had better strike while the iron is hot," continued the dowager. "What time is it, Zerbinette?" "Half-past four, madame," said the attendant, glancing at her watch. "That gives us plenty of time. This morning when my grandson left to spend the day with the Merinvilles at Boncour, I promised him I would meet him at the lake at five o'clock, so we must make haste." "But, madame, you forget that M. Raoul sent his groom to tell you that he was going to pay a call at Montel after leaving Boncour, and that he would not return to the château before seven."