useful in your household as she? Who could replace her?
When you are suffering, she is the tenderest of nurses. She daily
relieves you of a thousand cares. When you have company, is it not
Madeleine who sees that everything is in order? If you give a dinner, is
it not Madeleine who not only superintends all the preparations, but
invents the most beautiful decorations for the table,--and out of
nothing--out of leaves and flowers so common that no one would have
thought of culling them, yet so wonderfully arranged that every one
exclaims at their picturesque effect? When you have dull guests,--guests
that put me to sleep, or out of patience,--is it not Madeleine who
amuses them? How many evenings, that would have been insufferably
stupid, have flown delightfully, chased by her delicious voice!"

"You make a great virtue of what was simply an enjoyment to herself. She
delights as much, or more, in singing than any one can delight in
hearing her."

"That is because she delights in everything she does; she always
accomplishes her work with delight. She delighted in making you that
becoming cap, with its coquettishly-disposed knots of violet ribbons;
she delighted in turning and freshening and remaking the silk dress you
wear at this moment, which fits you to perfection, and looks quite new.
She delighted in embroidering my cousin Tristan that pretty velvet
smoking-cap he has on his head. She delighted in making me the wreath
which I wore at the Count de Caradare's concert the other evening, and
which every one complimented me upon. It was her own invention;--and did
not you yourself remark that there was not a head-dress in the room half
as beautiful? Everything she touches she beautifies. The commonest
objects assume a graceful form beneath her fingers. The "_fingers of a
fairy_" my cousin Maurice used to call them, and, there certainly is
magic in those dainty, rapidly-moving hands of hers. They have an art, a
skill, a facility that partakes of the supernatural. Madeleine is a
dependent upon your bounty, but her magic fingers make her a very
valuable one; and, if you would not think it very impertinent, I would
say that we are all _her debtors_, rather than _she ours_. There, I have
done! Now, forgive me for my temerity,--confess that you have been too
severe to Madeleine, and promise not to find fault with her any more."

"I will confess that she has the most charming advocate in the world,"
answered the countess with a