There was war between the English governess and Emily Chandos. Emily was excessively popular; with her beauty, her gaiety, and her generous wilfulness; she did nearly what she liked in the school--except of course with the Miss Barlieus. For myself, I had learnt to love her. She had her faults--what girl is without them? She was vain, petulant, haughty when displeased, and a little selfish. But she possessed one great gift of attraction--that of taking hearts by storm. Miss Johnstone began by a mistake: the striving to put down Miss Chandos. She was over-strict besides with her lessons and exercises; and more than once reported her to Miss Annette for some trifling fault, magnified by her into a grave one. The girls espoused. Emily\'s cause; and Miss Johnstone grew to be regarded, and also treated, with contempt. It vexed her greatly; and there were other things.

Her name was Margaret. But she had incautiously left an open letter about, in which she was repeatedly called "Peg." Of course that was quite enough for the girls, and they took to call her Peg, almost in her hearing. A new English pupil, who entered as weekly boarder, went up at the English dictation and addressed her as "Miss Pegg," believing it to be her real name. You should have seen Miss Johnstone\'s dark and angry face, and the dancing eyes of Emily Chandos.

Madame de Mellissie had left for Paris; but her son, Monsieur Alfred, remained at Nulle--his attraction being, as the girls said openly, Emily Chandos. Emily laughed as she listened: but denial she made none. They said another thing--that the beautiful hearts-ease ring she wore had been his love-gift: and still there was no express denial. "Have it so if you like," was all Emily said.

"She cannot think seriously of him, you know," Ellen Roper observed one day. "It is a match that could never be allowed by her family. He is quite a second-rate sort of Frenchman, and she is Miss Chandos of Chandos. He is a bit of a jackanapes too, vain and silly."

"Ellen Roper, I am within hearing, I beg to inform you," said Miss Chandos, from half way up the desk, her face in a lovely glow.

"That is just why I said it," returned Ellen Roper, who, however, had not known Emily was near, and started at the sound of her voice. "I daresay he has not above a thousand pounds or two a year; a very fair patrimony for a Frenchman, you know; but only fancy it for one in the position of Miss Chandos."

"Go on, Ellen Roper! I\'ll tell something of you by-and-by."

"And, setting aside everything else, there\'s another great barrier," went on Ellen Roper, making objections very strong in her spirit of mischief. "The De Mellissies are Roman Catholics; cela va, you know; while the Chandos family are staunch Conservative Protestants. Lady Chandos would almost as soon give Emily to the Grand Turk as to Alfred de Mellissie."

A sort of movement at the desk, and we looked round. Quietly seated on the low chair in the corner, her ears drinking in all, for we had been speaking in English, was Miss Johnstone. Had she been there all the time? Emily Chandos\'s bright cheek paled a little, as if there had fallen upon her a foreshadowing of ill.

"I do not know that it would have come, but that circumstances worked for it. On this afternoon, this very same afternoon as we sat there, Emily was called out of the room by one of the maids, who said Mrs. Trehern had called to see her.

"Trehern?--Trehern?" cried Emily, as she went. "I don\'t know the name from Adam."

Back she soon came with a radiant face, and presented herself to Mademoiselle Annette, who was in class.

"Oh, Mademoiselle, some friends are here, and they wish me to go out with them. Will you give me permission? It is Mr. and Mrs. Trehern."

"Trehern? Trehern?" repeated Mademoiselle Annette. "I don\'t remember that name on your visiting list."

Emily knew quite well it was not there, since this was the first time she had seen either of the parties: but she had trusted to the good luck of Mademoiselle Annette\'s believing that it was.

"Mamma will be so vexed if I do not go. She is very intimate with the Treherns. They have only just arrived at the town, Mademoiselle, and have descended at the Hotel du Lion d\'Or."

Which concluding words gave us the clue to Emily\'s eagerness for the visit. For it was at that renowned hotel that Mr. Alfred de Mellissie had been sojourning since his mother\'s departure. Mademoiselle Annette was firm.

"You know the rules of the school, my dear. We have heard nothing of these gentlepeople from your mamma, and it is impossible that you can be allowed to go."

Emily Chandos carried back her excuses to the salon, and after school gave vent to her mortification in a private outburst to us.

"Such a dreadful shame, these horrid French rules! As if the Treherns would have poisoned me! But I despatch a letter to mamma to-night to get permission. They are going to stay a month at Nulle. It is the bridal tour."

"Have they just come from England?"

"Not at all. She is French, and never was in England in her life. She is a friend"--dropping her voice still lower--"of the De Mellissies; at least her mother is: it was through Alfred they called upon me to-day."

"Then does Lady Chandos not know them?"

"She knows him. It is a Cornish family. This one, young Trehern, fell in love with a French girl, and has married her. They were married last Thursday, she told me. She had the most ravishing toilette on to-day: a white and blue robe: you might have taken it for silver. She\'s nearly as young as I am."

The letter despatched to Lady Chandos by Emily set forth the praises of Mrs. Trehern, and especially dwelt upon the fact that her mother was a dear friend of Madame de Mellissie. Not a word said it, though, that Mr. Alfred de Mellissie was sojourning at the Lion d\'Or, or at Nulle. And there came back permission from Lady Chandos for Emily to visit them: she wrote herself to Miss Barlieu, desiring that it might be so. Emily was in her glory.

A great apparent friendship sprang up between her and young Mrs. Trehern, who was something like herself, inexperienced and thoughtless. She was of good family, pleasing in manners, and quite won the hearts of the Miss Barlieus. Relatives of hers, the De Rosnys, lived in their chateau near Nulle--the cause of her passing sojourn there. We schoolgirls remembered how Maximilian de Bethune, the young Baron de Rosny, had been the envoy despatched by Henri le Grand to solicit assistance of Queen Elizabeth, in the years subsequent to the great slaughter of the Huguenots. We assumed that Mrs. Trehern might be of the same family; but did not know it.

Often and often she arrived at the school to take out Emily Chandos. At length the Miss Barlieus began to grumble: Mademoiselle Chandos went out too frequently, and her studies were getting in arrear. Emily protested it was her mamma\'s wish and pleasure that she should take advantage of the sojourn of Mrs. Trehern to go out, and exhibited part of a letter from Lady Chandos, in which the same appeared to be intimated. Mademoiselle Annette shook her head, and said it was a good thing the month of Mrs. Trehern\'s stay was drawing to its close.

Now it happened about this time that an uncle of Miss Johnstone\'s passed through Nulle on his way to Paris, staying for a day at the Hotel du Lion d\'Or. He invited his niece to go to see him, saying she might bring any one of the young ladies with her. She chose me, to my own surprise: perhaps the reason was that I had never taken an active part in annoying her as some of the rest had. The Miss Barlieus allowed me to go; for they looked upon it, not that I was about to pay an indiscriminate visit, but going out with one of the governesses, under her safe convoy and companionship.

"Where are you off to, little Hereford," demanded Emily Chandos, who was attiring herself before the one glass in the bedroom when I went up, for she was to spend the afternoon with the Treherns.

"Miss Johnstone\'s uncle is at the Lion d\'Or, and she has asked me to dinner there. We are to dine at the table d\'h?te."

"The Lion d\'Or!" cried Emily, turning round. "What a chance! to have that sharp-sighted duenna, Peg, dining at table with us!............