ons;
no one was proud of them. So perfect and so honest was the simplicity with
which they entered upon this new course of life, that they did not even
seem conscious of its merit. The hope of better days carried them gayly
along, and the present evil was lost in the sunshiny future.

Here and there, however, the distress was too real, too pressing to be
forgotten; in such cases our good schoolmaster used to contrive all
possible measures to assist and to relieve. One venerable couple I
remember well. They bore one of the highest names of Brittany, and had
possessed large estates, had lost their two sons, and were now in their
old age, their sickness, and their helplessness, almost entirely dependent
upon the labor of Mdlle. Rose, their grand-daughter. Rose--what a name for
that pallid, drooping creature, whose dark eyes looked too large for her
face, whose bones seemed starting through her skin, and whose black hair
contrasted even fearfully with the wan complexion from which every tinge
of healthful color had long flown!

For some time these interesting persons regularly attended our worthy
governess's supper-parties, the objects of universal affection and
respect. Each seemed to come for the sake of the other; Mademoiselle,
always bringing with her some ingenious straw-plaiting to make into the
fancy bonnets which were then in vogue, rarely raised her head from her
work, or allowed herself time to make a hasty meal. It was sad to think
how ceaseless must be the industry by which that fair and fragile creature
could support the helpless couple who were cast upon her duty and her
affection! At last they ceased to appear at the Wednesday parties, and
very soon after (Oh! it is the poor that help the poor!) we heard that the
good Abbe Calonne (brother to the well-known minister) had undertaken for
a moderate stipend the charge of the venerable count and countess, while
Mdlle. Rose, with her straw-plaiting, took up her abode in our
school-room, working as indefatigably through our verbs and over our
exercises as she had before done through the rattle of the tric-trac table
and the ceaseless clatter of French talk.

Now this school of ours was no worse than other schools; indeed it was
reckoned among the best conducted, but some way or other the foul weed
called exclusiveness had sprung up among the half dozen great girls who,
fifty years ago, "gave our little senate laws," to a point that threatened
to choke and destroy