and the roads are ill-made and visitors few.'

'When the lion was ill the jackals left him,' I said.

Louis nodded. 'It is true,' he answered simply. He made no
boast or brag on his own account, I noticed; and it came home to
me that he was a faithful fellow, such as I love. I questioned
him discreetly, and learned that he and Clon and an older man who
lived over the stables were the only male servants left of a
great household. Madame, her sister-in-law, and three women
completed the family.

It took me some time to repair my wardrobe, so that I daresay it
was nearly ten when I left my dismal little room. I found Louis
waiting in the corridor, and he told me that Madame de Cocheforet
and Mademoiselle were in the rose garden, and would be pleased to
receive me. I nodded, and he guided me through several dim
passages to a parlour with an open door, through which the sun
shone gaily on the floor. Cheered by the morning air and this
sudden change to pleasantness and life, I stepped lightly out.

The two ladies were walking up and down a wide path which
bisected the garden. The weeds grew rankly in the gravel
underfoot, the rose bushes which bordered the walk thrust their
branches here and there in untrained freedom, a dark yew hedge
which formed the background bristled with rough shoots and sadly
needed trimming. But I did not see any of these things. The
grace, the noble air, the distinction of the two women who paced
slowly to meet me--and who shared all these qualities, greatly as
they differed in others--left me no power to notice trifles.