"I have friends--and hopes." She almost laughed.

She was suddenly struck by the grotesqueness of the situation.

But she saw how she had hurt him, and she said instantly: "Of course, with those one may go far.

Sit down and tell me all your plans." He was about to comply, when, glancing out of the window, she saw the old sergeant, now "General Lagroin," and Parpon hastening up the walk.
Parpon ambled comfortably beside the old man, who seemed ten years younger than he had done the day before.
"Your army and cabinet, monseigneur!" she said with a pretty, mocking gesture of salutation.
He glanced at her reprovingly.

"My General and my Minister; as brave a soldier and as able a counsellor as ever prince had.