“And who are the Des Rameures, General?”

“You do not know the Des Rameures?  The deuce! no; you can not know them!  That is unfortunate, too.

“Des Rameures is a clever fellow, a very clever fellow, and all-powerful in his neighborhood.  He is an original, as you will see; and with him lives his niece, a charming woman.  I tell you, my boy, you must please them, for Des Rameures is the master of the county.  He protects me, or else, upon my honor, I should be stopped on the road!”

“But, General, what shall I do to please this Des Rameures?”

“You will see him.  He is, as I tell you, a great oddity.  He has not been in Paris since 1825; he has a horror of Paris and Parisians.  Very well, it only needs a little tact to flatter his views on that point.  We always need a little tact in this world, young man.”

“But his niece, General?”

“Ah, the deuce!  You must please the niece also.  He adores her, and she manages him completely, although he grumbles a little sometimes.”

“And what sort of woman is she?”

“Oh, a respectable woman—­a perfectly respectable woman.  A widow; somewhat a devotee, but very well informed.  A woman of great merit.”

“But what course must I take to please this lady?”

“What course?  By my faith, young man, you ask a great many questions.  I never yet learned to please a woman.  I am green as a goose with them always.  It is a thing I can not understand; but as for you, my young comrade, you have little need to be instructed in that matter.  You can’t fail to please her; you have only to make yourself agreeable.  But you will know how to do it—­you will conduct yourself like an angel, I am sure.”

“Captivate Des Rameures and his niece—­this is your advice!”

Early next morning Camors left the Chateau de Campvallon, armed with these imperfect instructions; and, further, with a letter from the General to Des Rameures.

He went in a hired carriage to his own domain of Reuilly, which lay ten leagues off.  While making this transit he reflected that the path of ambition was not one of roses; and that it was hard for him, at the outset of his enterprise, to by compelled to encounter two faces likely to be as disquieting as those of Des Rameures and his niece.

CHAPTER VI

THE OLD DOMAIN OF REUILLY

The domain of Reuilly consisted of two farms and of a house of some pretension, inhabited formerly by the maternal family of M. de Camors.  He had never before seen this property when he reached it on the evening of a beautiful summer day.  A long and gloomy avenue of elms, interlacing their thick branches, led to the dwelling-house, which was quite unequal to the imposing approach to it; for it was but an inferior construction of the past century, ornamented simply by a gable and a bull’s-eye, but flanked by a lordly dovecote.