Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/139

Rh as he retired with a superb bow, a gallant "Bon voyage, mesdames," and a wicked twinkle of the black eyes as they rested on the faces of the frozen ladies.

"I got rather the best of the joke in that little affair: didn't I?" said Mat, gayly, as the brown velvet Adonis vanished.

"You are a disgrace to your party and your nation," sternly responded Amanda.

Lavinia spoke not, but shook her little sister till the hat flew off her head, and she had only breath enough left to declare with unquenched ardor that she would do it again the very next chance she got.

Lectures, laughter, and longings for "my Comte" beguiled the remainder of the way, and Moulang (as Mat pronounced Moulins) was reached after a pleasant trip through a green country, picturesque with the white cattle of Berri. There was not much to see, but the town was so quaint and quiet, that Amanda was seized with one of her remarkable projects.

"Let us find a little house somewhere and stay a week or two. I fain would rest and ruminate among