er, her manner was gentle, and her countenance calm and serene.

"My dearest Mimi," she said, "I want you to understand thoroughly, why I
refused to listen to Monsieur le Prieur, when he came to talk to me. He
wanted me to try with my own sisters Caliste and Lisette for the rose,
and supposing I had agreed to do so, what would have been the
consequences, my dear Mimi? I love them dearly now, and I believe they
love me; but were I to gain the rose from them, they would be vexed, and
if I lost it after trying for it, I should be disappointed, and very
likely I should be cross and jealous."

"You are never cross, Victorine," replied the child, "so that you
certainly have a better right than Caliste or Lisette to the rose, and
then, too, we shall have fine work here, if they are rivals for the rose,
and either of them has a chance of getting it."

"Alas! I fear," exclaimed Victorine, sorrowfully, "alas! I fear so,
Mimi, I could almost find it in my heart to hope that neither will be
chosen."

"But you forget," replied Mimi, "how we manage these things in Salency,
you have only been at one of our yearly fetes, whilst I have been to ten,
and five of those I can remember very well. Three girls are always
chosen, Victorine, by the villagers, not one only, and then the Seigneur
takes one from those three--that is the way, you know, and Monsieur Le
Prieur wanted you, and Caliste, and Lisette, to be the three chosen. He
said it would make the thing so interesting, if three out of one family
were striving for the rose."

"Can it be possible," said Victorine, all astonishment, "that anybody can
be so ignorant of human nature, as to set three sisters to strive against
each other, to rouse up envy and jealousy in their minds, to make them
grieve to hear that their own sister is looked upon favourably by their
neighbours and friends, because by that favourable notice they will he
rejected? Young as you are, Mimi, you can see that this fete of the rose
must be very wrong, by raising one girl above another, and causing envy,
hatred, and malice amongst the rivals for the rose."

"It is very wrong," exclaimed the child, after a moment's thought. "Yes,
Victorine, it is very wrong, I am sure, and a fine scene we shall have of
it here, which ever way it turns up. But I am for Caliste against
Lisette--I am for Caliste, and if Lisette gains it, I for one will not
let her set herself over us. I am for Caliste--I am for Caliste."