"
"Tra la! lal! la! la! Tra la! la! Tra la! la!" carolled Jacintha, in the
colonel's room hard by.
The ladies looked at one another: Rose in great confusion.
"Tra la! la! la! Tra lal! lal! la! la! la!"
"Jacintha!" screamed Rose angrily.
"Hush! not a word," said the baroness. "Why remonstrate with HER?
Servants are but chameleons: they take the color of those they serve. Do
not cry. I wanted your confidence, not your tears, love. There, I will
not twice in one day ask you for your heart: it would be to lower the
mother, and give the daughter the pain of refusing it, and the regret,
sure to come one day, of having refused it. I will discover the meaning
of it all by myself." She went away with a gentle sigh; and Rose was cut
to the heart by her words; she resolved, whatever it might cost her and
Josephine, to make a clean breast this very day. As she was one of those
who act promptly, she went instantly in search of her sister, to gain
her consent, if possible.
Now, the said Josephine was in the garden walking with Camille, and
uttering a wife's tender solicitudes.
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