Sabine Baring-Gould

“ How goes?—happy, thankful to the good God! Why, madame, with such a child, and such a husband, and such a home—’ He had read her heart. He saw the cloud that hung over it. ‘Ah, yes! there is something wanting, and that’—turning to the dowager—‘you must supply.’
A rough man, who smote hard, but with a kind hand, a man who had no scruple to blurt out his opinion in the face of any one.
‘I am very thankful, M. le Curé,’ said Jacquetta, ‘for my dear, dear baby.’
He looked at her with his shrewd eye, and grunted. Her colour was heightened and there was a sparkle in her eye. ”

“ The dismay of Aunt Betsy was great. Jacquetta to desert her husband and chateau, to throw away, as naught, her position as baroness, to bring a slur on the name of Montcontour!
‘My dear!’ she exclaimed, ‘it may be all innocent and true what you say, but no one will believe that you have run home—I mean to your father and mother—just for baby’s sake. They will say horrible things of you. They will believe every kind of evil of you. Never—never! No one will admit that you have been badly used. ”

“ She drove out to visit Aunt Betsy. An idea had been fermenting in her mind which she was afraid to give utterance to, yet resolved to hint at. She could not put up with the life she was leading any longer. She wanted to go home to England, to her father and mother, and carry baby with her. She had no dislike to Alphonse, she loved him, but she loved her little fellow better. She had not had a really happy day since she had been in France. Would Aunt Betsy abet her in her plan of running away? ”