vital part! He parried every one, and returned them broken at my
feet. His persistent questioning about yourself, as soon as he
discovered we had been school companions at the Convent, quite
foiled me. He was full of interest about you, and all that
concerned you, but cared not a fig about me!"

"What could Colonel Philibert have to ask you about me?" Amelie
unconsciously drew closer to her companion, and even clasped her arm
by an involuntary movement which did not escape her friend.

"Why, he asked everything a gentleman could, with proper respect,
ask about a lady."

"And what did you say?"

"Oh, not half enough to content him. I confess I felt piqued that
he only looked on me as a sort of pythoness to solve enigmas about
you. I had a grim satisfaction in leaving his curiosity irritated,
but not satisfied. I praised your beauty, goodness, and cleverness
up to the skies, however. I was not untrue to old friendship,
Amelie!" Angelique kissed her friend on the cheek, who silently
allowed what, in her indignation a few moments ago, she would have
refused.

"But what said Colonel Philibert of himself? Never mind about me."

"Oh, impatient that you are! He said nothing of himself. He was
absorbed in my stories concerning you. I told him as pretty a fable
as La Fontaine related of the Avare qui avait perdu son tresor! I
said you were a beautiful chatelaine besieged by an army of lovers,