at the man would be safely out of the way of doing
further harm for the present.

Barbara quite agreed with her, but thought she would have felt the
comfort more if some one else had played her part. But when the whole
unpleasant business was over, and Barbara had vowed that nothing would
ever prevail upon her to go into court again--even if it were to
receive sentence herself--she sought out Mademoiselle Vire, with a
proposal to do something to "take away the bad feeling."

"Make music," the little lady said. "That is, I think, the only thing
I can offer you, my child. Music is very good for 'bad feelings.'"

"Yes, oh, yes, it is; but this is something I have been wanting for a
long time, and now I feel it is the right time for it. _Dear_
Mademoiselle Vire, will you come for a drive with me?"

A delicate flush coloured the old lady's cheeks, and Barbara watched
her anxiously. She knew she was very poor, and could not afford to do
such things for herself, and she was too frail to walk beyond the
garden, but she also greatly feared that she might have made the offer
in a way to hurt her friend's feelings.

The little lady did not answer for some time, then she looked into the
eager face before her and smiled.

"_If_ I said I would go, where could you get a carriage to take us?"

"Oh, I have found out all about that," the girl replied joyfully. "I
shall not ask you to go in a donkey-cart, nor yet in a _fiacre_. I
have found out quite a nice low chaise and a quiet pony that can be
hired, and I will drive you myself."

It took only a little consideration after that, and then mademoiselle
gave her consent to go next day if it were fine.

"If Jeannette would care to come," Barbara said, before leaving; and
the old woman, who had been sitting very quietly in her corner while
the arrangements were being made, looked at her mistress with a beaming
face, and read her pleasure in the plan before she spoke.

"I am so glad you thought of her," Mademoiselle Vire whispered as she
said good-bye to her visitor, "for though, of course, I should never
have asked you to include her, yet she has been so patient and faithful
in going through sorrows and labour with me, that it is but fair she
should share my pleasures, and I should have felt grieved to leave her
at home on such a day."

Barbara had one more invitation to give, which went rather against the
grain, and that was to Mademoiselle Therese, whom she felt she coul