t I was a
little amused at him. The colour rose to his cheek; with half a smile
he turned and took his hat--he was going. My heart smote me.

"I will--I will help you," said I eagerly. "I will do what you wish. I
will watch over your angel; I will take care of her, only tell me who
she is."

"But you _must_ know," said he then with earnestness, yet speaking very
low. "So spotless, so good, so unspeakably beautiful! impossible that
one house should contain two like her. I allude, of course--"

Here the latch of Madame Beck's chamber-door (opening into the nursery)
gave a sudden click, as if the hand holding it had been slightly
convulsed; there was the suppressed explosion of an irrepressible
sneeze. These little accidents will happen to the best of us.
Madame--excellent woman! was then on duty. She had come home quietly,
stolen up-stairs on tip-toe; she was in her chamber. If she had not
sneezed, she would have heard all, and so should I; but that unlucky
sternutation routed Dr. John. While he stood aghast, she came forward
alert, composed, in the best yet most tranquil spirits: no novice to
her habits but would have thought she had just come in, and scouted the
idea of her ear having been glued to the key-hole for at least ten
minutes. She affected to sneeze again, declared she was "enrhumee," and
then proceeded volubly to recount her "courses en fiacre." The
prayer-bell rang, and I left her with the doctor.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE FETE.

As soon as Georgette was well, Madame sent her away into the country. I
was sorry; I loved the child, and her loss made me poorer than before.
But I must not complain. I lived in a house full of robust life; I
might have had companions, and I chose solitude. Each of the teachers
in turn made me overtures of special intimacy; I tried them all. One I
found to be an honest woman, but a narrow thinker, a coarse feeler, and
an egotist. The second was a Parisienne, externally refined--at heart,
corrupt--without a creed, without a principle, without an affection:
having penetrated the outward crust of decorum in this character, you
found a slough beneath. She had a wonderful passion for presents; and,
in this point, the third teacher--a person otherwise characterless and
insignificant--closely resembled her. This last-named had also one
other distinctive property--that of avarice. In her reigned the love of
money for its own sake. The sight of a piece of gold would bring into
her