work done after hours, Jersey bank-notes and gold, to give Guida a dot,
if not worthy of her, at least a guarantee against reproach when some
great man should come seeking her in marriage. But at last his hands
trembled among the tiny wheels, and his eyes failed. He had his dark
hour by himself, then he sold the shop to a native, who thenceforward
sat in the ancient exile's place; and the two brown eyes of the stooped,
brown old man looked out no more from the window in the Vier Marchi: and
then they all made their new home in the Place du Vier Prison.

Until she was fifteen Guida's life was unclouded. Once or twice her
mother tried to tell her of a place that must soon be empty, but her
heart failed her. So at last the end came like a sudden wind out of
the north; and it was left to Guida Landresse de Landresse to fight the
fight and finish the journey of womanhood alone.

This time was the turning-point in Guida's life. What her mother had
been to the Sieur de Mauprat, she soon became. They had enough to live
on simply. Every week her grandfather gave her a fixed sum for the
household. Upon this she managed, that the tiny income left by her
mother might not be touched. She shrank from using it yet, and besides,
dark times might come when it would be needed. Death had once surprised
her, but it should bring no more amazement. She knew that M. de
Mauprat's days were numbered, and when he was gone she would be left
without one near relative in the world. She realised how unprotected her
position would be when death came knocking at the door again. What she
would do she knew not. She thought long and hard. Fifty things occurred
to her, and fifty were set aside. Her mother's immediate relatives
in France were scattered or dead. There was no longer any interest at
Chambery in the watchmaking exile, who had dropped like a cherry-stone
from the beak of the blackbird of persecution upon one of the Iles de la
Manche.

There remained the alternative more than once hinted by the Sieur de
Mauprat as the months grew into years after the mother died--marriage;
a husband, a notable and wealthy husband. That was the magic destiny de
Mauprat figured for her. It did not elate her, it did not disturb her;
she scarcely realised it. She loved animals, and she saw no reason to
despise a stalwart youth. It had been her fortune to know two or three
in the casual, unconventional manner of villages, and there were few in
the land, great or hu