d
seen more of my father than she, as they had sometimes played cards
together after dinner. She urged me to visit them, assuring me a
welcome.

When about half way home she complained of fatigue and sat down to rest
on a bench that the heavy foliage had protected from the rain. I stood
before her and watched the pale light of the moon playing on her
face. After a moment's silence she arose and, in a constrained manner,
observed:

"Of what are you thinking? It is time for us to think of returning."

"I was wondering," I replied, "why God created you, and I was saying to
myself that it was for the sake of those who suffer."

"That is an expression that, coming from you, I can not look upon except
as a compliment."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you appear to be very young."

"It sometimes happens," I said, "that one is older than the face would
seem to indicate."

"Yes," she replied, smiling, "and it sometimes happens that one is
younger than his words would seem to indicate."

"Have you no faith in experience?"

"I know that it is the name most young men give to their follies and
their disappointments; what can one know at your age?"

"Madame, a man of twenty may know more than a woman of thirty. The
liberty which men enjoy enables them to see more of life and its
experiences than women; they go wherever they please, and no barrier
restrains them; they test life in all its phases. When inspired by hope,
they press forward to achievement; what they will they accomplish. When
they have reached the end, they return; hope has been lost on the route,
and happiness has broken its word."

As I was speaking we reached the summit of a little hill which sloped
down to the valley; Madame Pierson, yielding to the downward tendency,
began to trip lightly down the incline. Without knowing why, I did the
same, and we ran down the hill, arm in arm, the long grass under our
feet retarded our progress. Finally, like two birds, spent with flight,
we reached the foot of the mountain.

"Behold!" cried Madame Pierson, "just a short time ago I was tired, but
now I am rested. And, believe me," she added, with a charming smile,
"you should treat your experience as I have treated my fatigue. We have
made good time, and shall enjoy supper the more on that account."

CHAPTER IV. RIPENING ACQUAINTANCE

I went to see her in the morning. I found her at the piano, her old aunt
at the window sewing, the little room filled with flo