Her thoughts were aimed too high to come down to occupations and interests which in other times than these would doubtless have pleased her.

Dress was a small matter to her mind; moreover her cousins were not there to see her.

She wore a dark-green habit when she rode, and a gown of some common woollen stuff with a cape trimmed with braid when she walked; in the house she was always seen in a silk wrapper.

Gothard, the little groom, a brave and clever lad of fifteen, attended her wherever she went, and she was nearly always out of doors, riding or hunting over the farms of Gondreville, without objection being made by either Michu or the farmers.

She rode admirably well, and her cleverness in hunting was thought miraculous.