Lanfray had been
introduced to her many years since in France, after the death of his
wife; that she was absolute mistress in the house; and that her three
pupils had always looked up to her as a second mother, from the time
when their father first placed them under her charge.

These scraps of information made me rather anxious to see Mademoiselle
Clairfait, the governess.

On the day appointed for my attendance at the comfortable country house
of Rockleigh, I was detained on the road, and did not arrive at my
destination until late in the evening. The welcome accorded to me by
Mr. Lanfray gave an earnest of the unvarying kindness that I was to
experience at his hands in after-life. I was received at once on equal
terms, as if I had been a friend of the family, and was presented the
same evening to my host's daughters. They were not merely three elegant
and attractive young women, but--what means much more than that--three
admirable subjects for pictures, the bride particularly. Her young
husband did not strike me much at first sight; he seemed rather shy
and silent. After I had been introduced to him, I looked round for
Mademoiselle Clairfait, but she was not present; and I was soon
afterward informed by Mr. Lanfray that she always spent the latter part
of the evening in her own room.

At the breakfast-table the next morning, I again looked for my sitter,
and once more in vain. "Mamma, as we call her," said one of the ladies,
"is dressing expressly for her picture, Mr. Kerby. I hope you are
not above painting silk, lace, and jewelry. The dear old lady, who is
perfection in everything else, is perfection also in dress, and is bent
on being painted in all her splendor."

This explanation prepared me for something extraordinary; but I found
that my anticipations had fallen far below the reality when Mademoiselle
Clairfait at last made her appearance, and announced that she was ready
to sit for her portrait.

Never before or since have I seen such perfect dressing and such active
old age in combination. "Mademoiselle" was short and thin; her face
was perfectly white all over, the skin being puckered up in an infinite
variety of the smallest possible wrinkles. Her bright black eyes were
perfect marvels of youthfulness and vivacity. They sparkled, and beamed,
and ogled, and moved about over everybody and everything at such a rate,
that the plain gray hair above them looked unnaturally venerable, and
the wrinkles belo