t full
of life. Both were at the age at which girls were usually in
convents, but as Anne learnt, Madame de Bellaise was too English at
heart to give up the training of her grandchildren, and she had an
English governess for them, daughter to a Romanist cavalier ruined
by sequestration.

She was evidently the absolute head of the family. Her daughter-in-
law was a delicate little creature, who scarcely seemed able to bear
the noise of the family at the long supper-table, when all talked
with shrill French voices, from the two youths and their abbe tutor
down to the little four-year-old Lolotte in her high chair. But to
Anne, after the tedious formality of the second table at the palace,
stiff without refinement, this free family life was perfectly
delightful and refreshing, though as yet she was too much cramped,
as it were, by long stiffness, silence, and treatment as an inferior
to join, except by the intelligent dancing of her brown eyes, and
replies when directly addressed.

After Mrs. Labadie's homeliness, Pauline's exclusive narrowness,
Jane's petty frivolity, Hester's vulgar worldliness, and the general
want of cultivation in all who treated her on an equality, it was
like returning to rational society; and she could not but observe
that Mr. Archfield altogether held his own in conversation with the
rest, whether in French or English. Little more than a year ago he
would hardly have opened his mouth, and would have worn the true
bumpkin look of contemptuous sheepishness. Now he laughed and made
others laugh as readily and politely as--Ah! With whom was she
comparing him? Did the thought of poor Peregrine dwell on his mind
as it did upon hers? But perhaps things were not so terrible to a
man as to a woman, and he had not seen those apparitions! Indeed,
when not animated, she detected a certain thoughtful melancholy on
his brow which certainly had not belonged to former times.

Mr. Fellowes early made known to Anne that her uncle had asked him
to be her banker, and the first care of her kind hostess was to
assist her in supplying the deficiencies of her wardrobe, so that
she was able to go abroad without shrinking at her own shabby
appearance.

The next thing was to take her to Poissy to request her dismissal
from the Queen, without which it would be hardly decorous to depart,
though in point of fact, in the present state of affairs, as Noemi
said, there was nothing to prevent it.

"No," said Mr. F