ities, or when the child is much in fault. But
here, in this great matter of Pierrette's clothes, the cousins' money
was the first consideration; their interests were to be thought of, not
the child's. Children have the perceptions of the canine race for the
sentiments of those who rule them; they know instinctively whether
they are loved or only tolerated. Pure and innocent hearts are more
distressed by shades of difference than by contrasts; a child does not
understand evil, but it knows when the instinct of the good and the
beautiful which nature has implanted in it is shocked. The lectures
which Pierrette now drew upon herself on propriety of behavior, modesty,
and economy were merely the corollary of the one theme, "Pierrette will
ruin us."

These perpetual fault-findings, which were destined to have a fatal
result for the poor child, brought the two celibates back to the old
beaten track of their shop-keeping habits, from which their removal to
Provins had parted them, and in which their natures were now to
expand and flourish. Accustomed in the old days to rule and to make
inquisitions, to order about and reprove their clerks sharply, Rogron
and his sister had actually suffered for want of victims. Little minds
need to practise despotism to relieve their nerves, just as great souls
thirst for equality in friendship to exercise their hearts. Narrow
natures expand by persecuting as much as others through beneficence;
they prove their power over their fellows by cruel tyranny as others
do by loving kindness; they simply go the way their temperaments drive
them. Add to this the propulsion of self-interest and you may read the
enigma of most social matters.

Thenceforth Pierrette became a necessity to the lives of her cousins.
From the day of her coming their minds were occupied,--first, with her
outfit, and then with the novelty of a third presence. But every new
thing, a sentiment and even a tyranny, is moulded as time goes on into
fresh shapes. Sylvie began by calling Pierrette "my dear," or "little
one." Then she abandoned the gentler terms for "Pierrette" only. Her
reprimands, at first only cross, became sharp and angry; and no sooner
were their feet on the path of fault-finding than the brother and sister
made rapid strides. They were no longer bored to death! It was not their
deliberate intention to be wicked and cruel; it was simply the blind
instinct of an imbecile tyranny. The pair believed they were doing