There was no denying, even if one was not in love, and a little tete montee besides, like my poor Nan, that there was nobility of heart in Clement Darpent, especially as he kept his hands clear of rebellion; and I would not enter into the question of their differing religions.  I left that for Eustace.  I was certain that Annora knew, even better than I did, that the diversity between our parents had not been for the happiness of their children.  In my own mind I saw little chance for the lovers, for I thought it inevitable that the Court and the Princes would draw together again, and that whether Cardinal Mazarin were sacrificed or not, the Frondeurs of Paris would be overthrown, and that Darpent, whose disinterestedness displeased all parties alike, was very likely to be made the victim.  Therefore, though I could not but hope that the numerous difficulties in the way might prevent her from being linked to his fate, and actually sharing his ruin.

She was not in my hands, and I had not to decide, so I let her talk freely to me, and certainly, when we were alone together, her tongue ran on nothing else.  I found that she hoped that Eustace would invite her lover to the Hague, and let them be wedded there by one of the refugee English clergy, and then they would be ready to meet anything together; but that M. Darpent was withheld by filial scruples, which actuated him far more than any such considerations moved her, and that he also had such hopes for his Parliament that he could not throw himself out of the power of serving it at this critical time, a doubt which she appreciated, looking on him as equal to any hero in Plutarch’s lives.

Our brother De Solivet met us, and conducted into Amiens, where he had secured charming rooms for us.  He was very full of an excellent marriage that had been offered to him for one of his little daughters, so good that he was going to make the other take the veil in order that her sister’s fortune might be adequate to the occasion; and he regretted my having left Paris, because he intended to have set me to discover which had the greatest inclination to the world and which the chief vocation for the cloister.  Annora’s Protestant eyes grew large and round with horror, and she exclaimed at last: 

’So that is the way in which you French fathers deliberate how to make victims of your daughters?’

He made her a little bow, and said, with is superior fraternal air: 

’You do not understand, my sister.  The happiest will probably be she who leads the peaceful life of a nun.’

‘That makes it worse,’ cried Annora, ’if you are arranging a marriage in which you expect your child to be less happy than if she were a nun.’

‘I said not so, sister,’ returned Solivet, with much patience and good-humour.  ’I simply meant what you, as a Huguenot, cannot perceive, that a simple life dedicated to Heaven is often happier than one exposed to the storms and vicissitudes of the world.’