once at ease with her. I begged her
to sit down at once on an orange-box over which was thrown a Syrian
mat, and to encourage her sat down in front of her. Her blushes
continued to increase, and she passed her dimpled but rather large
hand more than once over her eyes. She did not know how to begin
nor what to say. I sought to give her confidence, and by one or two
questions assisted her in opening the conversation she seemed both to
wish for and to fear."

[This girl is Reine-Garde, a peasant woman, attracted by a passionate
love of his poetry to visit Lamartine. She unfolds to him much that is
exquisitely reproduced in Genevieve. The romance bids fair to be one
of the most interesting this author has yet produced.]

"Madame ----," said I to her. She blushed yet more.

"I have no husband, Monsieur. I am an unmarried woman."

"Ah! Mlle, will you be pleased to tell me why you have come so far,
and why you waited so long to speak with me? Can I be useful to you
in any manner? Have you any letter to give me from any one in your
neighborhood?"

"Ah, Monsieur, I have no letter, I have nothing to ask of you, and the
last thing in the world that I should have done, would have been to
get a letter from any of the gentlemen in my neighborhood to you. I
would not even have suffered them to know that I came to Marseilles
to see you. They would have thought me a vain creature, who sought to
magnify her importance by visiting people who are so famous. Ah, that
would never do!"

"What then do you wish to say?"

"Nothing, _Monsieur_."

"How can that be? You should not _for nothing_ have wasted two days in
coming from Aix to Marseilles, and should not have waited for me here
until sunset, when to-morrow you must return home."

"It is, however, true, Monsieur. I know you will think me very
foolish, but ... I have nothing to tell you, and not for a fortune
would I consent that people at Aix should know whither I am gone."

"Something however induced you to come--you are not one of those
triflers who go hither and thither without a motive. I think you are
intellectual and intelligent. Reflect. What induced you to take a
place in the diligence and come to see me? Eh!"

"Well, sir," said she, passing her hands over her cheeks as if to wipe
away all blushes and embarrassment, and at the same time pushing her
long black curls, moist as they were with perspiration, beyond her
ears, "I had an idea which permitted me neither to sle