through the window-frame, had for an instant fallen upon those two charming countenances, now only shed its light upon the gilliflowers, primroses, and rose-tree.

“Bah!” said Mademoiselle de Montalais, taking her place again; “Madame will breakfast very well without me!”

“Oh! Montalais, you will be punished!” replied the other girl, sitting down quietly in hers.

“Punished, indeed! — that is to say, deprived of a ride! That is just the way in which I wish to be punished. To go out in the grand coach, perched upon a doorstep; to turn to the left, twist round to the right, over roads full of ruts, where we cannot exceed a league in two hours; and then to come back straight towards the wing of the castle in which is the window of Mary de Medici, so that Madame never fails to say: