d made quite a little intricate
mess of it; still I found that the uppermost feeling in my mind on the
subject was one of satisfaction. In the first place it would be a change
to give lessons in another seminary, and then to teach young ladies
would be an occupation so interesting--to be admitted at all into a
ladies' boarding-school would be an incident so new in my life. Besides,
thought I, as I glanced at the boarded window, "I shall now at last see
the mysterious garden: I shall gaze both on the angels and their Eden."

CHAPTER IX.

M. PELET could not of course object to the proposal made by Mdlle.
Reuter; permission to accept such additional employment, should it
offer, having formed an article of the terms on which he had engaged me.
It was, therefore, arranged in the course of next day that I should
be at liberty to give lessons in Mdlle. Reuter's establishment four
afternoons in every week.

When evening came I prepared to step over in order to seek a conference
with Mademoiselle herself on the subject; I had not had time to pay the
visit before, having been all day closely occupied in class. I remember
very well that before quitting my chamber, I held a brief debate with
myself as to whether I should change my ordinary attire for something
smarter. At last I concluded it would be a waste of labour. "Doubtless,"
thought I, "she is some stiff old maid; for though the daughter of
Madame Reuter, she may well number upwards of forty winters; besides, if
it were otherwise, if she be both young and pretty, I am not handsome,
and no dressing can make me so, therefore I'll go as I am." And off
I started, cursorily glancing sideways as I passed the toilet-table,
surmounted by a looking-glass: a thin irregular face I saw, with sunk,
dark eyes under a large, square forehead, complexion destitute of bloom
or attraction; something young, but not youthful, no object to win a
lady's love, no butt for the shafts of Cupid.

I was soon at the entrance of the pensionnat, in a moment I had pulled
the bell; in another moment the door was opened, and within appeared a
passage paved alternately with black and white marble; the walls were
painted in imitation of marble also; and at the far end opened a glass
door, through which I saw shrubs and a grass-plat, looking pleasant in
the sunshine of the mild spring evening-for it was now the middle of
April.

This, then, was my first glimpse of the garden; but I had not time to
l