Most reluctantly the count ascended the stairs and informed the boys of the order which he had received.
"It is simply done to annoy me," he said.

"No doubt he has heard that you ride about the estate with me and are treated as members of the family, and he thinks, and rightly, that it will be a serious annoyance to me if you are transferred elsewhere.

However, I can do no less than obey the order, and I can only hope that you will spend most of your time here.

Alexis shall bring the carriage over every morning for you, wherever you may be quartered." The girls were as indignant and aggrieved as even the midshipmen could wish to see them, but there was no help for it.

A quarter of an hour later a carriage was at the door, a portmanteau well filled with clothes placed behind, and with the sergeant trotting alongside, the boys left the chateau where they bad been so hospitably entertained, promising to come over without fail the next morning.
They were conducted to the governor's house, and taken not to the large room where he conducted his public business, and where they had before seen him, but to a smaller room, fitted up as a private study on the second floor.