folly by
spending the greater part of her married life at Malines,
where her husband was stationed, and at Liege, where his
mother and sister resided. Adolphe's education, however, was
wholly French; for Madame Linders, who, during her husband's
life, had not ceased to mourn over her exile from her own
city, lost no time, after his death, in returning to Paris
with her two children, Therese, a girl of about twelve, and
Adolphe, then a child five or six years old.

Madame Linders had money, but not much, and she made it go
further than did ever Frenchwoman before, which is saying a
great deal. Adolphe must be educated, Adolphe must be clothed,
Adolphe was to be a great man some day; he was to go into the
army, make himself a name, become a General, a Marshal,--heaven
knows what glories the mother did not dream for him, as she
turned and twisted her old black silks, in the _entresol_ in the
Chaussee d'Antin, where she had her little apartment. She had
friends in Paris, and must keep up appearances for Adolphe's
sake, not to mention her own, and so could not possibly live
in a cheap out-of-the-way quarter.

As for Therese, she was of infinitely small account in the
family. She was plain, not too amiable, nor particularly
clever, and inclined to be _devote;_ and, as in spite of
positive and negative failings, she also had to eat and be
clothed as well as her handsome fair brother, she could be
regarded as nothing else than a burden in the economical
household.

"You ask me what I shall do with Therese?" said Madame Linders
one day to a confidential friend. "Oh! she will go into a
convent, of course. I know of an excellent one near Liege, of
which her aunt is the superior, and where she will be
perfectly happy. She has a turn that way. What else can I do
with her, my dear? To speak frankly, she is _laide a faire
peur_, and she can have no _dot_ worth mentioning; for I have not
a sou to spare; so there is no chance of her marrying."

Therese knew her fate, and was resigned to it. As her mother
said, she had a turn that way; and to the Liege convent she
according went, but not before Madame Linders' death, which
took place when her daughter was about seven-and-twenty, and
which was, as Therese vehemently averred, occasioned by grief
at her son's conduct.

Adolphe had also known the fate reserved for him, and was by
no means resigned to it; for he had never had the least
intention of becoming a soldier, and having es