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28 none to spy upon the secret of her tears.

"In what name shall I make out the agreement?" asked Mme. de la Vaudraye, when everything was settled: settled to the great advantage of the owner, who had increased her rent by one-half.

"Why, in my own name: Mme. Armand!" said Gilberte, without foreseeing the consequences which this decision involved.

Mme. de la Vaudraye hesitated:

"But ... perhaps we shall want ... M. Armand's signature" ...

"I am a widow."

"Oh, I beg your pardon! I ought to have known. I see you are in mourning" ...

Mme. Armand moved into the Logis that same evening. At Mme. de la Vaudraye's express recommendation, she engaged as a servant the wife of the keeper of the ruins, Adèle, a big, fat, talkative woman, with hair on her upper lip, a stealthy eye and quick, blunt manners. Bouquetot, her husband, was to sleep at the manor-house; and their