ties, or with her stately visitings. The Doctor's hat and cane in
their usual place upon the little table within the door, and of a Sunday
his voice is lifted up under the old meeting-house roof in earnest
expostulation. The birds pipe their old songs, and the orchard has shown
once more its wondrous glory of bloom. But all these things have lost
their novelty for Adele. Would it be strange, if the tranquil life of
the little town had lost something of its early charm? That swift French
blood of hers has been stirred by contact with the outside world. She
has, perhaps, not been wholly insensible to those admiring glances which
so quickened the pride of the father. Do not such things leave a hunger
in the heart of a girl of seventeen which the sleepy streets of a
country town can but poorly gratify?

The young girl is, moreover, greatly disturbed at the thought of the new
separation from her father for some indefinite period. Her affections
have knitted themselves around him, during that delightful journey of
the summer, in a way that has made her feel with new weight the parting.
It is all the worse that she does not clearly perceive the necessity for
it. Is she not of an age now to contribute to the cheer of whatever home
he may have beyond the sea? Why, pray, has he given her such uninviting
pictures of his companions there? Or what should she care for his
companions, if only she could enjoy his tender watchfulness? Or is it
that her religious education is not yet thoroughly complete, and that
she still holds out against a full and public avowal of all the
doctrines which the Doctor urges upon her acceptance? And the thought of
this makes his kindly severities appear more irksome than ever.

Another cause of grief to Adele is the extreme disfavor in which she
finds that Madame Arles is now regarded by the townspeople. Her
sympathies had run out towards the unfortunate woman in some
inexplicable way, and held there even now, so strongly that contemptuous
mention of her stung like a reproach to herself. At least she was a
countrywoman, and alone among strangers; and in this Adele found
abundant reason for a generous sympathy. As for her religion, was it not
the religion of her mother and of her good godmother? And with this
thought flaming in her, is it wonderful, if Adele toys more fondly than
ever, in the solitude of her chamber, with the little rosary she has
guarded so long? Not, indeed, that she has much faith in i