there before the meeting broke up.'

'Then it was he I saw far away on the road--yes, it must have been.' She
remained in gloomy reverie a few moments, and then said, 'Very well--let
it be. Picotee, get me some tea: I do not want dinner.'

But the news of Christopher's visit seemed to have taken away her
appetite for tea also, and after sitting a little while she flung herself
down upon the couch, and told Picotee that she had settled to go and see
their aunt Charlotte.

'I am going to write to Sol and Dan to ask them to meet me there,' she
added. 'I want them, if possible, to see Paris. It will improve them
greatly in their trades, I am thinking, if they can see the kinds of
joinery and decoration practised in France. They agreed to go, if I
should wish it, before we left London. You, of course, will go as my
maid.'

Picotee gazed upon the sea with a crestfallen look, as if she would
rather not cross it in any capacity just then.

'It would scarcely be worth going to the expense of taking me, would it?'
she said.

The cause of Picotee's sudden sense of economy was so plain that her
sister smiled; but young love, however foolish, is to a thinking person
far too tragic a power for ridicule; and Ethelberta forbore, going on as
if Picotee had not spoken: 'I must have you with me. I may be seen
there: so many are passing through Rouen at this time of the year.
Cornelia can take excellent care of the children while we are gone. I