This abbe, who became bishop of Troyes after the Restoration, had long made a study of young people and fully understood the noble character of the young countess; he appreciated her at her full value, and had shown her, from the first, a respectful deference which contributed much to her independence at Cinq-Cygne, for it led the austere old lady and the kind old gentleman to yield to the young girl, who by rights should have yielded to them.
For the last six months the abbe had watched Laurence with the intuition peculiar to priests, the most sagacious of men; and although he did not know that this girl of twenty-three was thinking of overturning Bonaparte as she lay there twisting with slender fingers the frogged lacing of her riding-habit, he was well aware that she was agitated by some great project.
Mademoiselle Goujet was one of those unmarried women whose portrait can be drawn in one word which will enable the least imaginative mind to picture her; she was ungainly.

She knew her own ugliness and was the first to laugh at it, showing her long teeth, yellow as her complexion and her bony hands.

She was gay and hearty.

She wore the famous short gown of former days, a very full skirt with pockets full of keys, a cap with ribbons and a false front.

She was forty years of age very early, but had, so she said, caught up with herself by keeping at that age for twenty years.