In the course of the evening, the colonel also informed the baroness
that he expected every day an order to join the army of the Rhine.
Edouard pricked his ears.
The baroness said no more than politeness dictated. She did not press
him to stay, but treated his departure as a matter of course. Riviere
rode home late in the evening in high spirits.
The next day Rose varied her late deportment; she sang snatches of
melody, going about the house; it was for all the world like a bird
chirping. In the middle of one chirp Jacintha interfered. "Hush,
mademoiselle, your mamma! she is at the bottom of the corridor."
"What was I thinking of?" said Rose.
"Oh! I dare say you know, mademoiselle," replied the privileged
domestic.
A letter of good news came from Aubertin. That summons to his nephew's
funeral was an era in his harmless life.
The said nephew was a rich man and an oddity; one of those who love to
surprise folk. Moreover, he had no children, and detected his nephews
and nieces being unnaturally civil to him. "Waiting to cut me up," was
his generous reading of them.
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