iance, and touched the ivory
keys of the piano with a fresh polish. Adele's eyes were fixed with
eager expectation upon her mother.

"You know, _ma chere_", Mrs. Dubois began, "we once lived in France.
But you cannot know, I trust you never may, what it cost us to leave
our beautiful Picardy,--what we have suffered in remaining here,
exiled in this rude country. Yet then it seemed our best course.
Indeed, we thought there was no other path for us so good as this. We
were young, and did not enough consider, perhaps, what such a change
in our life involved. I must tell you, my Adele, how it came about.

"In the province of Picardy not many miles from the city of Amiens,
there was a fine, but not large estate, bordering on the River Somme.
A long avenue of poplars led from the main road up a gentle slope
until it opened upon a broad, green plateau of grass, studded with
giant trees, the growth of centuries. Here and there were trim little
flower-beds, laid out in a variety of fantastic shapes, with stiff,
glossy, green, closely-clipped borders of box. And, what was my
childish admiration and delight, there was a fountain that poured
itself out in oozing, dripping drops from the flowing hair and finger
tips of a marble Venus, just rising in the immense basin and wringing
out her locks. Then the park,--there was none more beautiful, more
stately, extending far back to the banks of the Somme, where birds sat
on every bough and the nightingale seemed to pour its very heart away,
singing so thrillingly and so long. I hear the liquid notes now, my
Adele, so tender, so sweet! At the end of the avenue of poplars of
which I spoke stood the chateau, with the trim flower-beds in front.
It was built of brown stone, not much ornamented externally, with four
round towers, one in each corner. Though not as old as some of those
castles, it had been reared several centuries before, by a Count de
Rossillon, who owned the estate and lived on it.

"In that chateau, I first saw the light of day, and there I spent my
happy childhood and youth.

"The estate of Rossillon had been bequeathed by the will of my
grandfather, to his two sons. The elder, the present Count de
Rossillon, inherited the larger portion; my father, the younger son,
the smaller share.

"My father was a Bonapartist, and at the time of his marriage held a
high rank in the army. During his absence from the country, my mother
resided at the chateau with her brother-in-law,