About a week after her arrival in Paris, Julia wrote to her mother that they expected, her husband and herself, to leave that evening, and that they would be in Cherbourg the next morning.

Clotilde prepared, of course, to go and meet them with her carriage.

Monsieur de Lucan, after duly conferring with her on the subject, thought best not to accompany her.

He feared that he might interfere with the first emotions of the return, and yet, not wishing that Julia should attribute his absence to a lack of attention, he resolved to go and meet the travelers on horseback..