I smoked and made Adolphus stand up on his hind legs and balance sugar on his nose.

His mistress sewed.

Presently she said, without looking up from her work: "I've made up my mind." I rose from my cushioned seat, into which Adolphus, evidently thinking me a fool, immediately snuggled himself, and I stood facing her with my back to the fire.
"Well ?" said I.
"I am ready to go back to my husband, if he can be found, and, of course, if he will have me." I commended her for a brave women.

She smiled rather sadly and shook her head.
"Those are two gigantic 'ifs.'" "Giants before now have been slain by the valiant," I replied.
"How is Captain Vauvenarde to be found ?" "An officer in the French Army is not like a lost sparrow in London.

His whereabouts could be obtained from the French War Office.