mmy, surrounded with curls of gray hair, which
tossed about at every step she took and made me think, I know not why,
of a pickled herring in curl papers. Lowering her eyes, she passed
quickly in front of me and entered the house.

"That singular apparition cheered me. She undoubtedly was my neighbor,
the English lady of mature age of whom our hostess had spoken.

"I did not see her again that day. The next day, when I had settled
myself to commence painting at the end of that beautiful valley which
you know and which extends as far as Etretat, I perceived, on lifting
my eyes suddenly, something singular standing on the crest of the cliff,
one might have said a pole decked out with flags. It was she. On seeing
me, she suddenly disappeared. I reentered the house at midday for lunch
and took my seat at the general table, so as to make the acquaintance of
this odd character. But she did not respond to my polite advances, was
insensible even to my little attentions. I poured out water for her
persistently, I passed her the dishes with great eagerness. A slight,
almost imperceptible, movement of the head and an English word, murmured
so low that I did not understand it, were her only acknowledgments.

"I ceased occupying myself with her, although she had disturbed my
thoughts.

"At the end of three days I knew as much about her as did Madame
Lecacheur herself.

"She was called Miss Harriet. Seeking out a secluded village in which
to pass the summer, she had been attracted to Benouville some six months
before and did not seem disposed to leave it. She never spoke at table,
ate rapidly, reading all the while a small book of the Protestant
propaganda. She gave a copy of it to everybody. The cure himself had
received no less than four copies, conveyed by an urchin to whom she had
paid two sous commission. She said sometimes to our hostess abruptly,
without preparing her in the least for the declaration:

"'I love the Saviour more than all. I admire him in all creation; I
adore him in all nature; I carry him always in my heart.'

"And she would immediately present the old woman with one of her tracts
which were destined to convert the universe.

"In, the village she was not liked. In fact, the schoolmaster having
pronounced her an atheist, a kind of stigma attached to her. The cure,
who had been consulted by Madame Lecacheur, responded:

"'She is a heretic, but God does not wish the death of the sinner, and I
believe he