'Don't be frightened, Miss; it's only a bit o' chaff. I'm not going to search.' I called aloud, 'Madame, Madame!' and he whistled through his fingers, and shouted, 'Madame, Madame,' and added, 'She's as deaf as a tombstone, or she'll hear that. Gi'e her my compliments, and say I said you're a beauty, Miss;' and with a laugh and a leer he strode off. Altogether this had not been a very pleasant excursion. Madame gobbled up our sandwiches, commending them every now and then to me. But I had been too much excited to have any appetite left, and very tired I was when we reached home. 'So, there is lady coming to-morrow?' said Madame, who knew everything. 'Wat is her name? I forget.' 'Lady Knollys,' I answered. 'Lady Knollys--wat odd name! She is very young--is she not?' 'Past fifty, I think.' 'Hélas! She's vary old, then. Is she rich?' 'I don't know. She has a place in Derbyshire.' 'Derbyshire--that is one of your English counties, is it not?' 'Oh yes, Madame,' I answered, laughing. 'I have said it to you twice since you came;' and I gabbled through the chief towns and rivers as catalogued in my geography. 'Bah! to be sure--of course, cheaile. And is she your relation?' 'Papa's first cousin.' 'Won't you present-a me, pray?--I would so like!' Madame had fallen into the English way of liking people with titles, as perhaps foreigners would if titles implied the sort of power they do generally with us. 'Certainly, Madame.' 'You will not forget?' 'Oh no.' Madame reminded me twice, in the course of the evening, of my promise. She was very eager on this point. But it is a world of disappointment, influenza, and rheumatics; and next morning Madame was prostrate in her bed, and careless of all things but flannel and James's powder. Madame was _désolée_; but she could not raise her head. She only murmured a question. 'For 'ow long time, dear, will Lady Knollys remain?' 'A very few days, I believe.' 'Hélas! 'ow onlucky! maybe to-morrow I shall be better Ouah! my ear. The laudanum, dear cheaile!' And so our conversation for that time ended, and Madame buried her head in her old red cashmere shawl. CHAPTER IX _MONICA KNOLLYS_ Punctually Lady Knollys arrived. She was accompanied by her nephew, Captain Oakley. They arrived a little before dinner; just in time to get to their rooms and dress. But Mary Quince enlivened my toilet with eloquent descriptions of the youthful Captain whom she had met in the gallery, on his way to his room, with the servant, and told me how he stopped to let her pass, and how 'he smiled so 'ansom.'