tle proud, he is very
kind, and he has such fine manners; I am sure that all the ladies must
be quite wild about him.'

"'You might be fond of him yourself, to hear you talk,' was Madame
Gaudin's comment.

"'He is just as dear to me as a brother,' she laughed. 'I should be
finely ungrateful if I felt no friendship for him. Didn't he teach me
music and drawing and grammar, and everything I know in fact? You don't
much notice how I get on, dear mother; but I shall know enough, in a
while, to give lessons myself, and then we can keep a servant.'

"I stole away softly, made some noise outside, and went into their room
to take the lamp, that Pauline tried to light for me. The dear child had
just poured soothing balm into my wounds. Her outspoken admiration had
given me fresh courage. I so needed to believe in myself and to come
by a just estimate of my advantages. This revival of hope in me perhaps
colored my surroundings. Perhaps also I had never before really looked
at the picture that so often met my eyes, of the two women in their
room; it was a scene such as Flemish painters have reproduced so
faithfully for us, that I admired in its delightful reality. The mother,
with the kind smile upon her lips, sat knitting stockings by the dying
fire; Pauline was painting hand-screens, her brushes and paints, strewn
over the tiny table, made bright spots of color for the eye to dwell
on. When she had left her seat and stood lighting my lamp, one must
have been under the yoke of a terrible passion indeed, not to admire her
faintly flushed transparent hands, the girlish charm of her attitude,
the ideal grace of her head, as the lamplight fell full on her pale
face. Night and silence added to the charms of this industrious vigil
and peaceful interior. The light-heartedness that sustained such
continuous toil could only spring from devout submission and the lofty
feelings that it brings.

"There was an indescribable harmony between them and their possessions.
The splendor of Foedora's home did not satisfy; it called out all my
worst instincts; something in this lowly poverty and unfeigned goodness
revived me. It may have been that luxury abased me in my own eyes,
while here my self-respect was restored to me, as I sought to extend the
protection that a man is so eager to make felt, over these two women,
who in the bare simplicity of the existence in their brown room seemed
to live wholly in the feelings of their hearts. As I came