I bowed low. They returned the salute. 'This is my sister,'
Madame de Cocheforet said, with a very slight air of
condescension, 'Will you please to tell me your name, Monsieur?'
'I am M. de Barthe, a gentleman of Normandy,' I said, taking on
impulse the name of my mother. My own, by a possibility, might
be known.
Madame's face wore a puzzled look. 'I do not know that name, I
think,' she said thoughtfully. Doubtless she was going over in
her mind all the names with which conspiracy had made her
familiar.
That is my misfortune, Madame,' I said humbly.
'Nevertheless I am going to scold you,' she rejoined, still
eyeing me with some keenness. 'I am glad to see that you are
none the worse for your adventure--but others may be. And you
should have borne that in mind, sir.'
'I do not think that I hurt the man seriously,' I stammered.
'I do not refer to that,' she answered coldly. 'You know, or
should know, that we are in disgrace here; that the Government
regards us already with an evil eye, and that a very small thing
would lead them to garrison the village, and perhaps oust us from
the little the wars have left us.
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