“Come, young ladies,” said Mrs. Grivois, in the most affable tone, “let us make haste—­you will excuse my impatience, I am sure—­but it is in the name of your relation that I speak.”

Having once more tenderly kissed the wife of Dagobert, the sisters quitted the room hand in hand, and descended the staircase close behind Mrs. Grivois, followed (without their being aware of it), by Spoil-sport.  The intelligent animal cautiously watched their movements, for, in the absence of his master, he never let them out of his sight.

For greater security, no doubt, the waiting-woman of Madame de Saint Dizier had ordered the hackney-coach to wait for her at a little distance from the Rue Brise-Miche, in the cloister square.  In a few seconds, the orphans and their conductress reached the carriage.

“Oh, missus!” said the coachman, opening the door; “no offence, I hope—­but you have the most ill-tempered rascal of a dog!  Since you put him into my coach, he has never ceased howling like a roasted cat, and looks as if he would eat us all up alive!” In fact, My Lord, who detested solitude, was yelling in the most deplorable manner.

“Be quiet, My Lord! here I am,” said Mrs. Grivois; then addressing the two sisters, she added:  “Pray, get in, my dear young ladies.”

Rose and Blanche got into the coach.  Before she followed them, Mrs. Grivois was giving to the coachman in a low voice the direction to St. Mary’s Convent, and was adding other instructions, when suddenly the pug dog, who had growled savagely when the sisters took their seats in the coach, began to bark with fury.  The cause of this anger was clear enough; Spoil-sport, until now unperceived, had with one bound entered the carriage.

The pug, exasperated by this boldness, forgetting his ordinary prudence, and excited to the utmost by rage and ugliness of temper, sprang at his muzzle, and bit him so cruelly, that, in his turn, the brave Siberian dog, maddened by the pain, threw himself upon the teaser, seized him by the throat, and fairly strangled him with two grips of his powerful jaws—­as appeared by one stifled groan of the pug, previously half suffocated with fat.

All this took place in less time than is occupied by the description.  Rose and Blanche had hardly opportunity to exclaim twice:  “Here, Spoil sport! down!”

“Oh, good gracious!” said Mrs. Grivois, turning round at the noise.  “There again is that monster of a dog—­he will certainly hurt my love.  Send him away, young ladies—­make him get down—­it is impossible to take him with us.”

Ignorant of the degree of Spoil-sport’s criminality, for his paltry foe was stretched lifeless under a seat, the young girls yet felt that it would be improper to take the dog with them, and they therefore said to him in an angry tone, at the same time slightly touching him with their feet:  “Get down, Spoil-sport! go away!”

The faithful animal hesitated at first to obey this order.  Sad and supplicatingly looked he at the orphans, and with an air of mild reproach, as if blaming them for sending away their only defender.  But, upon the stern repetition of the command, he got down from the coach, with his tail between his legs, feeling perhaps that he had been somewhat over-hasty with regard to the pug.