spent so much of their time,
and her dresses were as plain as those of the nuns _ought_ to have been.
She looked well after her husband's comfort, and saw that her babies
were well and happy, and when everything in her own house was arranged
for the day, she went through the door that opened into her father's
Paris dwelling, and sat with her mother, who was very delicate and could
scarcely leave her sofa.

The summer months were passed at monsieur Arnauld's estate of Andilly,
not far from Paris, to which they all moved in several large coaches.
Even here the lawyer was busy most of the day over his books and papers,
but in the evening he was always ready to listen to his wife's account
of her visits to their own poor people, or to those of the village near
by. At a period when scarcely anyone gave a thought to the peasants, or
heeded whether they lived or died, Arnauld's labourers were all well
paid, and the old and ill fed and clothed. And if monsieur Arnauld did
not go amongst them much himself, he allowed his wife to do as she
liked, and gave her sound advice in her difficulties.

As they grew older the children used often to accompany their mother on
her rounds, and learnt from her how to help and understand the lives
that were so different from their own. They saw peasants in bare
cottages contented and happy on the simplest food, and sometimes on very
little of it. They did not think about it at the time, of course, but in
after-years the memory of these poor people was to come back to them;
and they no longer felt strange and shy of those whom they were called
upon to aid.

* * * * *

Madame Arnauld's second daughter, Jacqueline, was a great favourite with
her grandfather, monsieur Marion, and was very proud of it. In Paris
every morning she used to run into his house, locking the door of
communication behind her. If, as often occurred, her brothers and
sisters wanted to come too, and drummed on the panels to make Jacqueline
open it, she would call out through the key-hole:

'Go away! You have no business here, this house belongs to _me_,' and
then she would run through the rooms till she found her grandfather, and
sit chattering to him about the things she liked and the games she was
fond of. She was quick and clever and easily interested, and it amused
monsieur Marion to listen to her when he had no work to occupy him; but
one fact he plainly noticed, and that was that Jacqu