g revealed
her child's exquisite feeling, a too early comprehension of sorrow.

Mme. Willemsens dressed during the children's early breakfast and game
of play; she was coquettish for her darlings; she wished to be pleasing
in their eyes; for them she would fain be in all things lovely, a
gracious vision, with the charm of some sweet perfume of which one can
never have enough.

She was always dressed in time to hear their lessons, which lasted from
ten till three, with an interval at noon for lunch, the three taking the
meal together in the summer-house. After lunch the children played for
an hour, while she--poor woman and happy mother--lay on a long sofa
in the summer-house, so placed that she could look out over the soft,
ever-changing country of Touraine, a land that you learn to see afresh
in all the thousand chance effects produced by daylight and sky and the
time of year.

The children scampered through the orchard, scrambled about the
terraces, chased the lizards, scarcely less nimble than they;
investigating flowers and seeds and insects, continually referring all
questions to their mother, running to and fro between the garden and the
summer-house. Children have no need of toys in the country, everything
amuses them.

Mme. Willemsens sat at her embroidery during their lessons. She
never spoke, nor did she look at masters or pupils; but she followed
attentively all that was said, striving to gather the sense of the words
to gain a general idea of Louis' progress. If Louis asked a question
that puzzled his master, his mother's eyes suddenly lighted up, and she
would smile and glance at him with hope in her eyes. Of Marie she asked
little. Her desire was with her eldest son. Already she treated him,
as it were, respectfully, using all a woman's, all a mother's tact to
arouse the spirit of high endeavor in the boy, to teach him to think of
himself as capable of great things. She did this with a secret purpose,
which Louis was to understand in the future; nay, he understood it
already.

Always, the lesson over, she went as far as the gate with the master,
and asked strict account of Louis' progress. So kindly and so winning
was her manner, that his tutors told her the truth, pointing out where
Louis was weak, so that she might help him in his lessons. Then came
dinner, and play after dinner, then a walk, and lessons were learned
till bedtime.

So their days went. It was a uniform but full life; work and amus