in the gardens in a circle together, sewing, knitting, and chatting,
with occasional merry bursts of laughter. Their existence is not, by
many degrees, as monotonous as that of most women in isolated
households--especially of the farmer's wife in her solitary home, miles
away from a village and a post office. They taught a school of fifty
orphan girls, who lived in the convent, and for whom they frequently had
entertainments. They also had a few boarders of the old aristocracy of
France, who hate the Republic and still cling to their belief in Popes
and Kings. For the purpose of perfecting herself in the language, my
daughter embraced every opportunity to talk with all she met, and thus
learned the secrets of their inner life. As Sister Rose spoke English, I
gleaned from her what knowledge I could as to their views of time and
eternity. I found their faith had not made much progress through the
terrible upheavals of the French Revolution. Although the Jesuits have
been driven out of France, and the pictures of Saints, the Virgin Mary,
and Christ, have been banished from the walls of their schools and
colleges, the sincere Catholics are more devoted to their religion
because of these very persecutions.

Theodore, his wife, and baby, and Mr. Blatch, a young Englishman, came
to visit us. The sisters and school children manifested great delight in
the baby, and the former equal pleasure in Mr. Blatch's marked attention
to my daughter, as babies and courtships were unusual tableaux in a
convent. As my daughter was studying for a university degree in
mathematics, I went with her to the Lycee, a dreary apartment in a
gloomy old building with bare walls, bare floors, dilapidated desks and
benches, and an old rusty stove. Yet mid such surroundings, the
professor always appeared in full dress, making a stately bow to his
class. I had heard so much of the universities of France that I had
pictured to myself grand buildings, like those of our universities; but,
instead, I found that the lectures were given in isolated rooms, here,
there, and anywhere--uniformly dreary inside and outside.

The first day we called on Professor Depesyrons. After making all our
arrangements for books and lectures, he suddenly turned to my daughter,
and, pointing to the flounces on her dress, her jaunty hat, and some
flowers in a buttonhole, he smiled, and said: "All this, and yet you
love mathematics?" As we entered the court, on our way to the Lycee