ing look, and wistful expression, which would
have sent Charlet into ecstasies, but she only scowled in answer to his
"Here, Helene, will you take it?" so persuasively spoken. The little
girl, so sombre and vehement beneath her apparent indifference,
shuddered, and even flushed red when her brother came near her; but
the little one seemed not to notice his sister's dark mood, and his
unconsciousness, blended with earnestness, marked a final difference
in character between the child and the little girl, whose brow was
overclouded already by the gloom of a man's knowledge and cares.

"Mamma, Helene will not play," cried the little one, seizing an
opportunity to complain while the two stood silent on the Ponte des
Gobelins.

"Let her alone, Charles; you know very well that she is always cross."

Tears sprang to Helene's eyes at the words so thoughtlessly uttered
by her mother as she turned abruptly to the young man by her side. The
child devoured the speech in silence, but she gave her brother one of
those sagacious looks that seemed inexplicable to me, glancing with a
sinister expression from the bank where he stood to the Bievre, then at
the bridge and the view, and then at me.

I as afraid lest my presence should disturb the happy couple; I slipped
away and took refuge behind a thicket of elder trees, which completely
screened me from all eyes. Sitting quietly on the summit of the bank, I
watched the ever-changing landscape and the fierce-looking little girl,
for with my head almost on a level with the boulevard I could still see
her through the leaves. Helene seemed uneasy over my disappearance,
her dark eyes looked for me down the alley and behind the trees with
indefinable curiosity. What was I to her? Then Charles' baby laughter
rang out like a bird's song in the silence. The tall, young man, with
the same fair hair, was dancing him in his arms, showering kisses upon
him, and the meaningless baby words of that "little language" which
rises to our lips when we play with children. The mother looked on
smiling, now and then, doubtless, putting in some low word that came
up from the heart, for her companion would stop short in his full
happiness, and the blue eyes that turned towards her were full of
glowing light and love and worship. Their voices, blending with the
child's voice, reached me with a vague sense of a caress. The three
figures, charming in themselves, composed a lovely scene in a glorious
landscape, f