een
talking so bitterly as you said, I happened to look out of window, and
saw him stop and treat a whole crowd of little children to apples at the
stall at the corner. And the day before yesterday, when he was coming
and brought me the Moliere, he stopped and gave money to a beggar, and
how charmingly, sure, he reads the French! I agree with him though about
Tartuffe, though 'tis so wonderfully clever and lively, that a mere
villain and hypocrite is a figure too mean to be made the chief of a
great piece. Iago, Mr. George said, is near as great a villain; but then
he is not the first character of the tragedy, which is Othello, with
his noble weakness. But what fine ladies and gentlemen Moliere
represents--so Mr. George thinks--and--but oh, I don't dare to repeat
the verses after him."

"But you know them by heart, my dear?" asks Mrs. Lambert.

And Theo replies, "Oh yes, mamma! I know them by... Nonsense!"

I here fancy osculations, palpitations, and exit Miss Theo, blushing
like a rose. Why had she stopped in her sentence? Because mamma was
looking at her so oddly. And why was mamma looking at her so oddly? And
why had she looked after Mr. George when he was going away, and looked
for him when he was coming? Ah, and why do cheeks blush, and why do
roses bloom? Old Time is still a-flying. Old spring and bud time; old
summer and bloom time; old autumn and seed time; old winter time, when
the cracking, shivering old tree-tops are bald or covered with snow.

A few minutes after George arrived, Theo would come downstairs with
a fluttering heart, may be, and a sweet nosegay in her cheeks, just
culled, as it were, fresh in his honour; and I suppose she must have
been constantly at that window which commanded the street, and whence
she could espy his generosity to the sweep, or his purchases from the
apple-woman. But if it was Harry who knocked, she remained in her own
apartment with her work or her books, sending her sister to receive
the young gentleman, or her brothers when the elder was at home from
college, or Doctor Crusius from the Chartreux gave the younger leave
to go home. And what good eyes Theo must have had--and often in the
evening, too--to note the difference between Harry's yellow hair and
George's dark locks--and between their figures, though they were so like
that people continually were mistaking one for the other brother. Now it
is certain that Theo never mistook one or t'other; and that Hetty, for
her