th paternal
affection Sanselme soothed the girl's shame and despair. He had
preserved much of the persuasiveness of a priest, his language stirred
and softened at one and the same time. But now every word that he
uttered was sincere.

Jane remained excessively sad.

Sanselme had saved several thousand francs. What should he do with Jane?
He had left Lyons, hoping that a change of scene would go far toward
restoring cheerfulness to Jane. Vain hope. She never forgot her mother,
nor that mother's life. She learned with marvelous rapidity. Study was
her best distraction. From this Sanselme hoped much. He taught her
himself all that he had formerly learned, and wondered at the progress
she made.

The merest accident revealed to him Jane's amazing talent for music. If
Art should take hold of her and absorb her entirely, she would forget
and enter a new life.

She studied music thoroughly, and Sanselme took care, living as they
were, in Germany at that time, that she should constantly hear good
music.

Her memory was prodigious, her voice exceptionally true, her taste
perfect. Sanselme felt that here was safety for him.

At the end of a few years Jane, now become a great artist, went with her
benefactor to Paris.

Their position toward each other was in no degree modified. He was very
respectful in his manner, and always kept a certain distance between
them. He did not wish her to know anything more about herself than that
she was the daughter of the wretched Zelda.

By degrees the recollection of Lyons seemed to fall from the mind of
Jane. Never was there the most distant allusion ever made to her mother,
and the girl never spoke of her.

This silence astonished Sanselme, and troubled him as well. He had
studied Jane so closely that he thoroughly understood her character, her
goodness, unselfishness and passionate gratitude. He knew that she had
not forgotten her mother, and would never do so, and that the reason she
never mentioned her was because her pain and shame were quite as acute
as ever. Jane's character was a singular mixture of audacity and
timidity. It was her own proposition that she should offer her services
at the concert, and when Sanselme proposed that she should go to
Sabrau's, the artist, she had not hesitated in doing so.

She sought to distract her mind, for she was haunted by a spectre. She
had a ghastly fear that she might be tempted to lead the life her mother
had led.

The theatre, so o