ol, not far from Madeira Place, and
among my scholars was Sorel's only son, a boy of perhaps fourteen, whom
his father had left behind, for a time, at school in France, and had but
lately brought over. He was a shy, modest, intelligent little fellow,
utterly out of place in his rude surroundings. From the pleasant village
home-school, of which he sometimes told me, to the _Maison Sorel_, was a
grating change.

He was always waiting for me at the schoolroom door, and was always the
last one to speak to me at closing. Perhaps I reminded him of some young
usher whom he had known when life was more pleasant.

If, however, the _Maison Sorel_ chafed Auguste, it was not for lack of
affection on his father's part Sorel often came with him to the door of
the school-room; and every night, rain or shine, he was there at nine to
accompany him home. It was in this way that I first came to know Sorel;
and whether it was from some kindness that Auguste may have thought
I showed, or because I could talk a little French, Sorel took a great
liking to me. At first, he and Auguste would walk with me a few blocks
after school; then he would look in upon me for a few minutes at the
law-office where I was studying, where I had a large anteroom to myself;
finally, nothing would do but that I should visit him at his house. I
had always been fond of strolling about the wharves, and I should have
liked very well to stop occasionally at Sorel's, if I could have been
allowed to sit in the kitchen and hear the general conversation. But
this was not sufficient state for "M. le maitre d'ecole." I must be
drawn off upstairs to the bedroom parlor, to hear of Auguste's virtues.
Such devotion I have seldom seen. Sorel would have praised Auguste, with
tears in his eyes, for hours together, if I would have stayed to listen.

He had many things to show in that parlor. He had gyroscopes: and he
would wind them up and set half-a-dozen of those anti-natural tops
spinning straight out in the air for my diversion. There were great
sacks of uninflated balloons, and delicate sheet-rubber, from which
Sorel made up balloons. There were other curious things in rubber,--a
tobacco-pouch, for example, in perfect outward imitation of an iron
kilogramme-weight, with a ring to lift it by, warranted to create
"immense surprise" among those who should lift it for iron;
tobacco-pouches, too, in fac-simile of lobsters and crabs and reptiles,
colored to nature, which Sorel ass