Angelica might tell you things that she won't tell
me. I don't mean the man's name — ^no one could
get that from her. I am stire you could help. It
would be such a load off my mind if you would
come."

And I had of course to comply.
I could not leave instantly, and while I was
making the preparations I was amused to see, out
of the window, Mrs. Stratton stealthily approach-
ing the kitchen door. She knew that Suzanne
ruled there, and her mind had by no means relin-
qtiished France as an ally !

I discovered afterwards that my guess had been
H



16 2 ROSE AND ROSE

right. But Suzanne had as Uttle practical sym-
pathy as Mrs. Stratton had colloquial French, and
the interview was a complete failure. There are
delicacies of situation beyond Ollendorff's range.
If Mrs. Stratton assured me once on the journey,
she assured me thirty times, that she would never
be able to hold up her head again.
" Nonsense ! " I replied ; and I was right. She
is holding it fairly high still, but with far less self-
righteous aloofness. Angelica's iUicit bantUng,
whose existence we were able to conceal from the
world, did more to humanize its grandmother
than anji;hing else could have done. As for
Angelica, she is now married and a respected
matron, with sons and daughters born in as lawful
a form of wedlock as Church and State can provide.
But that has nothing to do with my story, and
I apologize for the digression. My reconciliation
with the Fergussons also is not precisely in the
direct line of this narrative, but having described
the earUer stages of the coolness, I must be per-
mitted to record the later.
