“’Oh! mon Dieu! my dear children—­that must not be—­in a hotel! why, that is not proper.  You cannot remain in a hotel! come and stay with me. mon Dieu! you’ll be very uncomfortable.  You’ll be camping out, as it were.  I don’t even know how I’ll manage to give you anything to eat, for my cook is sick abed, and that stupid coachman of mine, by the way, has a stye on his eye!  But why not let people know you were coming?  You fall upon me like two flower-pots from a window!  It’s incredible!  You are in good health, my friend?  I need not ask you.  It shows plainly enough.  And you, my beautiful pet?  Why! it is the sun; the sun itself.  Hide yourself—­you are dazzling my eyes!  Have you any luggage?  Well, we’ll just put it in the parlor; it can’t be helped.  And as to yourselves, I’ll give you my own room.  I’ll engage a housekeeper and hire a driver from some livery stable.  You’ll not be in my way at all, not at all, not at all!’

“In short, we did not accept.

“But the explanation of this sudden return!  Here it is: 

“‘Are you not tired of Switzerland, my dear?’ I asked of my husband.

“‘I am tired of Switzerland,’ replied that faithful echo.

“‘Suppose we go away, then?’

“And away we went.

“Glad and moved to the bottom of my soul at the thought of soon kissing you,

JULIA.

“P.S.—­I beg Monsieur de Lucan not to intimidate me.”

The days that followed were delightfully busy for Clotilde.  She herself unpacked the parcels that constantly kept coming, and put the contents away with her own maternal hands.  She unfolded and folded again, she caressed those skirts, those waists of fine and perfumed linen, which were already to her like a part of her daughter’s person.  Lucan, a little jealous, surprised her meditating lovingly over these pretty things.  She went to the stables to see Julia’s horse, which had followed soon after the boxes; she gave him lumps of sugar and chatted with him.  She filled with flowers and verdant foliage the apartments set apart for the young couple.

This fever of happiness soon came to its happy termination.  About a week after her arrival in Paris, Julia wrote to her mother that they expected, her husband and herself, to leave that evening, and that they would be in Cherbourg the next morning.  Clotilde prepared, of course, to go and meet them with her carriage.  Monsieur de Lucan, after duly conferring with her on the subject, thought best not to accompany her.  He feared that he might interfere with the first emotions of the return, and yet, not wishing that Julia should attribute his absence to a lack of attention, he resolved to go and meet the travelers on horseback.

CHAPTER V.

FATHER AND STEP-DAUGHTER.