for he had not learned to speak it until he was sixteen years of age.
The General looked annoyed at this remark.
"Miss Ruysdale is still quite young enough to wish to devote the next few years of her life to the art in which she has already given such undoubted marks of ability. This interview is very painful to me, Mr. Feuardent; I must beg you to let it draw to a close. I will repeat, in parting with you, that there is nothing at all derogatory to you in my refusal of your suit."
In a desperate note, full of love and grief and despair, Robert communicated the result of the interview to Margaret.
The General ate his dinner alone that night, Margaret pleading a severe headache as her excuse for not appearing. This put the old soldier in a still less amiable frame of mind; and when he had finished his solitary meal, he lit his cigar and took his way toward the club,—that retreat of all erring men when in disgrace at home.
Here he found Colonel Lagrange, and the two worthies settled down to a game of chess; but before they had been seated a half hour in the Egyptian passivity of that unnatural and awful game, the General declared himself entirely incapable of fixing his mind upon his men. He needed a confidant; and retiring to one of the
