"Oh, dear!--you will go and guess it!" cried Jacqueline in alarm.
"Oh! don't guess it, please."

"Well! I will do my best not to guess, then," said the good-natured
Clotilde, with a laugh.

"And I assure you, for my part, that I am discretion itself," said M. de
Nailles.

So saying, he drew his wife's arm within his own, and the three passed
gayly together into the dining-room.




CHAPTER II

A CLEVER STEPMOTHER

No man took more pleasure than M. de Nailles in finding himself in his
own home--partly, perhaps, because circumstances compelled him to be very
little there. The post of deputy in the French Chamber is no sinecure.
He was not often an orator from the tribune, but he was absorbed by work
in the committees--"Harnessed to a lot of bothering reports," as
Jacqueline used to say to him. He had barely any time to give to those
important duties of his position, by which, as is well known, members of
the Corps Legislatif are shamelessly harassed by constituents, who, on
pretence that they have helped to place the interests of their district
in your hands, feel authorized to worry you with personal matters, such