s of so much learning and writing at night. _Mais voila
une femme superbe!_ I go to make her a little dinner of these," pointing
to the pigeons.

"Justine, _ma bonne_, won't you give us the key this afternoon?"

Justine stops suddenly and clasps her fat hands emphatically over the
lid of her basket.

"I had almost forgotten, Mademoiselle. Madame desired me to tell the
_demoiselles_ that she comes down this evening to sit in the _cabinet de
musique_."

I was delighted with this piece of intelligence, and ran to tell the
others. It was not often that Madame deigned to come down-stairs of an
evening, and were always glad when she did. In the first place, it was a
pleasant break in the monotony of the general routine to sit and work
and draw, instead of studying in the empty school-room; and secondly, it
was delightful to be with Madame, when she threw off the character of
preceptress,--for at such times she was infinitely agreeable,
entertaining us in her bright French manner as if we had been her
guests.

Madame had a way of charming all who approached her, from Adelaide
Sloper's rich, vulgar father, who, when he came to see his daughter, was
entertained by Madame _au salon_, and who was overheard to declare, as
he got into his grand carriage, that "that Frenchwoman was the finest
woman, by Jove, he'd ever seen!" to the tiny witch Elise, whom nobody
could manage, but who, at the first rustle of Madame's gown, would cease
from her mischief, fold her small hands, and, sinking her bead-like
black eyes, look as demure as such a sprite could. We all adored
Madame,--not that she herself was very good, though she was pious in her
way, too. She fasted and went regularly to confession and to all the
_offices_, and sometimes at the passing of the Host I have seen her
kneeling in the dusty street in a new dress, and I don't know what more
you could expect from a Frenchwoman.

Then she was so pretty, and there was a nameless grace in her attitude.
She seemed to me so beautiful, as she stood at her desk, with one hand
resting on her open book, tall, with something almost imperious in her
figure, her head bent, but her deep, lovely gray eyes looking quietly
before her and seeming to take in at once the whole school-room with an
expression of keen intelligence. She was highly cultivated, and had read
widely in many languages; but she wore her learning as gracefully as a
bird does its lovely plumage.

There was a latent desire f