society of
the ladies she had so long served. I soon saw that the connection
between these three beings would be terminated only by death. The chief
difference in the two ladies and their faithful old _bonne_, beyond the
circumstance of better education and greater refinement, was that for
the former the outer world no longer had much interest, while the old
Marie still seemed to retain a keen relish for what was going on around
her, and often amused me by the eagerness with which she would enter
into trifling details of gossip and general news. After sight-seeing all
day, and the experiences of a stranger in Paris, I was often glad to
join the trio in their little parlor, and talk over the Paris of former
days, during its revolutions and _fetes_, or answer their questions
about my every-day ramblings or my American home. I felt, during these
evenings, a relief from the general routine of places of amusement,
enjoyed their home-like quiet, and knew I could always give pleasure by
varying the monotony of these ladies' every-day life. So the three, so
devoted to each other, lived quietly on, winning my respect and
sympathy. I left them, with many regrets on their part and my own, and
on my return, after an absence of nearly a year, one of my first visits
was to these kind-hearted people. To my sorrow, I learned that death had
removed the elder lady some months before. I could hardly imagine a
death that would longer or more painfully affect a family group than
this, for they had so few outward circumstances to distract their
thoughts. They received me cordially; but grief for their irreparable
loss was always visible in every subsequent interview I had with them.
Meeting again one of the school-boys who had lodged there, he told me
the following circumstances of the death of the lady, and of the
relationship existing between them, which was so different from what I
had always imagined. Madame de B---- was the widow of a French officer
of high rank, during whose life she had been in affluent circumstances;
but through various causes, she had lost most of the property left her
at his death, and retained at last only enough to keep them in the
humble style I have described. The manner of her death was very
singular. In her better days, she had lived with her husband in a
handsome house near the Champs Elysees. On the day of her death, she was
walking with a gentleman from Boston, a friend of the two pupils I have
mentioned,