“I have thought of imitating the example of the Alderman, honest Francis, and of building a villa on the coast; but there will be time for that, when I shall find myself more established in life!  Your young mistress is not yet moving, Francis?”

“Ma foi, non—­Mam’selle Alide sleep!—­’tis good symptome, Monsieur Patteron, pour les jeunes personnes, to tres bien sleep.  Monsieur, et toute la famille de Barberie sleep a merveille!  Oui, c’est toujours une famille remarquable, poui le sommeil!”

“Yet one would wish to breathe this fresh and invigorating air, which comes from off the sea, like a balm, in the early hours of the day.”

“Sans doute, Monsieur.  C’est un miracle, how Mam’selle love de air!  Personne do not love air more, as Mam’selle Alide.  Bah!—­It was grand plaisir to see how Monsieur de Barberie love de air!”

“Perhaps, Mr. Francis, your young lady is ignorant of the hour.  It might be well to knock at the door, or perhaps at the window.  I confess, I should much admire to see her bright face, smiling from that window, on this soft morning scene.”

It is not probable that the imagination of the Patroon of Kinderhook ever before took so high a flight; and there was reason to suspect, by the wavering and alarmed glance that he cast around him after so unequivocal an expression of weakness, that he already repented his temerity.  Francois, who would not willingly disoblige a man that was known to possess a hundred thousand acres of land, with manorial rights, besides personals of no mean amount, felt embarrassed by the request; but was enabled to recollect in time, that the heiress was known to possess a decision of character that might choose to control her own pleasures.

“Well, I shall be too happy to knock; mais, Monsieur sais, dat sleep est si agreable, pour les jeunes personnes!  On n’a jamais knock, dans la famille de Monsieur de Barberie, and je suis sur, que Mam’selle Alide, do not love to hear de knock—­pourtant, si Monsieur le Patteron le veut, I shall consult ses—­Voila!  Monsieur Bevre, qui vient sans knock a la fenetre.  J’ai l’honneur de vous laisser avec Monsieur Al’erman.”

And so the complaisant but still considerate valet bowed himself out of a dilemma, that he found, as he muttered to himself, while retiring, ’tant soit peu ennuyant.’

The air and manner of the Alderman, as he approached his guest, were, like the character of the man, hale, hearty and a little occupied with his own enjoyments and feelings.  He hemmed thrice, ere he was near enough to speak; and each of the strong expirations seemed to invite the admiration of the Patroon, for the strength of his lungs, and for the purity of the atmosphere around a villa which acknowledged him for its owner.