The sudden pang which wrenched poor Mr. Cole's heart when he heard that Madame Koller would soon leave the county, and the country as well, was vain suffering. For Madame Koller did not go. Old Madame Schmidt for the first time became restless. Ahlberg protested that he could not stay any longer. Pembroke had become entirely at ease about Ahlberg. Apparently Ahlberg was in no hurry to carry out that rash engagement to fight, which Pembroke regarded on his own part as a piece of consummate folly, and was heartily ashamed of. He did not feel the slightest apprehension that, if the truth got out, his personal courage would be suspected, because that had been tested during the war, but he was perfectly willing to let Ahlberg's arm take as long to recover as it chose, and called himself a fool every time he thought about the roadside quarrel.
The ennui was nearly killing to Madame Koller, yet she stayed on under a variety of pretexts which deceived everybody, including herself.
She was not well adapted for solitude, yet most of the people about bored her. Mrs. Peyton, she considered as her bête noir, and quite hated to see the Peyton family carriage turning into the carriage drive before the door. But for her singing she
