No one would have dreamt of taking her to be anything else but a lady, no matter what costume she adopted, or how she was disguised.
"Who ever thought, dear doggie," she continued, speaking the thoughts that surged up in her mind while addressing the dumb animal, who looked as if he would like to understand her if he only could,--"who ever would have thought that things would turn out as they have when I last patted your dear old head at Bingen, `Fair Bingen on the Rhine,' eh ?" and she murmured to herself the refrain of that beautiful ballad.
The retriever gave a long sniff here to express his thorough sympathy with her, and the girl proceeded, musingly, thinking aloud.
"Yes, I mean, doggie, when Armand and I parted for the last time.

Poor mamma was alive then, and we never dreamt that this terrible war would come to pass, severing us so completely! Poor Armand, he said he would be true and return to me again when he was old enough to be able to decide for himself without the consent of that stern father of his, who thought that the daughter of a poor German pastor was not good enough mate for his handsome son--although he was only a merchant, while my mother was a French countess in her own right.

Still, parents have the right to settle these things, and I quite agreed with dear mamma that I would never consent to enter a family against their will, especially, too, when they despised our humble position!" The girl drew herself up proudly as she said this.
"Never mind," she went on again presently, "it is all over and done for.
But, still, I believe Armand loved me.

How handsome he looked that last time I saw him when he came to our little cottage to say good-bye, before he went to join his regiment in Algeria, where his father had got him ordered off on purpose to separate us.

However, perhaps it was only a boy and girl affection at the best, and would never have lasted; my heart has not broken, I know, although I thought it would break then; for, alas! I have since seen sorrow enough to crush me down, even much more than parting with Armand de la Tour.