none to spy upon the secret of her tears.
"In what name shall I make out the agreement?" asked Mme. de la Vaudraye, when everything was settled: settled to the great advantage of the owner, who had increased her rent by one-half.
"Why, in my own name: Mme. Armand!" said Gilberte, without foreseeing the consequences which this decision involved.
Mme. de la Vaudraye hesitated:
"But ... perhaps we shall want ... M. Armand's signature" ...
"I am a widow."
"Oh, I beg your pardon! I ought to have known. I see you are in mourning" ...
Mme. Armand moved into the Logis that same evening. At Mme. de la Vaudraye's express recommendation, she engaged as a servant the wife of the keeper of the ruins, Adèle, a big, fat, talkative woman, with hair on her upper lip, a stealthy eye and quick, blunt manners. Bouquetot, her husband, was to sleep at the manor-house; and their
