ufficient distinctness.
"Never studied geography, nor history, nor arithmetic!" cries
Soeur Ursule, who superintended the school; "not know the
principal cities in Europe, nor the kings of France, nor even
your multiplication table!" These speeches, with strongly
implied notes of admiration after each sentence, and
illustrated by the expression on the faces of a small, open-
mouthed audience in the background, roused Madelon's most
indignant feelings; she rebelled alike against the injustice
of being held up to public reprobation for not knowing what
she had never been taught, and against the imputations cast
upon her education hitherto. "I can do a great many things you
cannot," she would answer defiantly, "I can talk English, and
German, and Italian--you can't; I can dance--you can't; I can
sing songs, and--and, oh! a great many things that you cannot
do!" A speech of this sort would bring our poor Madelon into
dire disgrace we may be sure; and then angry, impenitent, she
would go away into some corner, and cry--oh! how sadly--for her
father; for the happy old days, for Monsieur Horace, too,
perhaps, to come back, and take her out of all this misery.

Behind the convent was a strip of ground, which produced
cabbages and snails on one side, and apple-trees on the other;
a straight walk divided these useful productions from each
other. When Madelon was _en penitence_ she used sometimes to be
sent to walk here alone during the hour of recreation, and
would wander disconsolately enough among the apple-trees,
counting the apples by way of something to do, and getting
intimately acquainted with the snails and green caterpillars
amongst the cabbages. Our poor little Madelon! I could almost
wish that we had kept her always in that pretty green valley
where we first saw her; but I suppose in every life there come
times when cabbages, or things of no cheerfuller aspect than
cabbages, are the only prospect, and this was one of her
times. She used to feel very unhappy and very lonely as she
paced up and down, thinking of the past--ah, how far that past
already lay behind her, how separate, how different from
anything she did, or saw, or heard in these dull days! She did
not find many friends to console her in her troubles; good-
natured Soeur Lucie did indeed try to comfort her when she
found her crying, and though she was not very successful in
her efforts, Madeleine began to give her almost as much
gratitude as if she had