“What the deuce are you about, Chapeau, with all this rhodomontade? didn’t I tell you that she would go with me.”

“And the other ladies, Mademoiselle Agatha and Madame de Lescure, they will remain in Laval?”

“Yes, they will remain in Laval with my father and M. de Lescure:  but you know all that already, as well as I do.”

“But Madame de Larochejaquelin, that is, when she is Madame, she will want some young woman to attend her.  Madame, of course, cannot go to Granville without some decent female to be near her; of course it will be quite impossible, will it not, Monsieur?”

“Now, Chapeau, tell me at once what you are coming to, and don’t pretend to be so considerate and modest.  You know that it is arranged that your own fiancee, Annot Stein, should accompany my wife.”

“Yes—­but, M. Henri, Annot Stein has some scruples; or rather—­”

“Scruples!  Oh, by all means, let her stay behind then.  I’ll have no one with me who has any scruples; tell her to stay with her father.  I’ll speak to Mademoiselle de Lescure.”

“But Monsieur is in such a hurry,” said Chapeau, who had not the slightest intention to have the matter arranged in this way.  “I was wrong to say that Annot has scruples; indeed she hasn’t got any—­not one at all—­it is I that have them.”

“You!  Now, Chapeau, may I ask the particular favour of you, to let me know at once, what you mean to ask of me?”

“Why, you see, M. Henri, Annot is a poor lone girl, quite unprotected as any one may say, though, of course, she will not be unprotected, when she will have the protection of Monsieur and Madame; but still she is a poor lone girl, and as such, she won’t have the—­the—­the what d’ye call it, you know, which she would have as a married woman—­the confidence and station, you know:  she wouldn’t be half so useful to Madame; and, therefore, perhaps, Monsieur will think that she and I had better be married at the same time as Madame.”

Chapeau had it all his own way; his arguments were unanswerable; and as no good reason could be given, why a wife would not be as serviceable to the man as it was to the master, it was agreed that they both should be married on the same day, at the same hour, in the same room, and by the same priest.  The honour of this was almost too much for poor Annot, and quite upset her father, Michael Stein, who did not at all like the idea of not having his own way, after his own fashion, at hi own only daughter’s wedding.  However, he was ultimately reconciled to the melancholy grandeur of the ceremony, by arrangements which were made for some substantial evening comfort below stairs; and although no banquet was prepared for the wedding of the master and the mistress, the valet and the lady’s maid were as well provided, as though they had been united in peaceful times, and in a quiet church.