shy, awkward reserve, and then made it only appear in the guise of
deep, respectful devotion; yet, by-and-by,--by the same process of
reasoning, I suppose, that his aunt had gone through even before him--Jean
Morin began to let Hope oust Despair from his heart. Sometimes he
thought--perhaps years hence--that solitary, friendless lady, pent up in
squalor, might turn to him as to a friend and comforter--and then--and
then--. Meanwhile Jean Morin was most attentive to his aunt, whom he had
rather slighted before. He would linger over the accounts; would bring
her little presents; and, above all, he made a pet and favourite of
Pierre, the little cousin, who could tell him about all the ways of going
on of Mam'selle Cannes, as Virginie was called. Pierre was thoroughly
aware of the drift and cause of his cousin's inquiries; and was his
ardent partisan, as I have heard, even before Jean Morin had exactly
acknowledged his wishes to himself.

"It must have required some patience and much diplomacy, before Clement
de Crequy found out the exact place where his cousin was hidden. The old
gardener took the cause very much to heart; as, judging from my
recollections, I imagine he would have forwarded any fancy, however wild,
of Monsieur Clement's. (I will tell you afterwards how I came to know
all these particulars so well.)

"After Clement's return, on two succeeding days, from his dangerous
search, without meeting with any good result, Jacques entreated Monsieur
de Crequy to let him take it in hand. He represented that he, as
gardener for the space of twenty years and more at the Hotel de Crequy,
had a right to be acquainted with all the successive concierges at the
Count's house; that he should not go among them as a stranger, but as an
old friend, anxious to renew pleasant intercourse; and that if the
Intendant's story, which he had told Monsieur de Crequy in England, was
true, that mademoiselle was in hiding at the house of a former concierge,
why, something relating to her would surely drop out in the course of
conversation. So he persuaded Clement to remain indoors, while he set
off on his round, with no apparent object but to gossip.

"At night he came home,--having seen mademoiselle. He told Clement much
of the story relating to Madame Babette that I have told to you. Of
course, he had heard nothing of the ambitious hopes of Morin Fils,--hardly
of his existence, I should think. Madame Babette had received him