And finally on the
afternoon of the ninth, there arrived at the Hotel Plougastel a
messenger from Meudon bearing a note from M. de Kercadiou in
which he urgently bade mademoiselle join him there at once, and
advised her hostess to accompany her.
You may have realized that M. de Kercadiou was of those who make
friends with men of all classes. His ancient lineage placed him
on terms of equality with members of the noblesse; his simple
manners - something between the rustic and the bourgeois - and his
natural affability placed him on equally good terms with those who
by birth were his inferiors. In Meudon he was known and esteemed
of all the simple folk, and it was Rougane, the friendly mayor,
who, informed on the 9th of August of the storm that was brewing
for the morrow, and knowing of mademoiselle's absence in Paris,
had warningly advised him to withdraw her from what in the next
four-and-twenty hours might be a zone of danger for all persons
of quality, particularly those suspected of connections with the
Court party.
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