at very long one. I would rather make no change."

Yet Hortense, by dint of perseverance, would probably have compelled her
to make a change, had not Mr. Moore chanced to overhear a dispute on the
subject, and decided that Caroline's little aprons would suffice, and
that, in his opinion, as she was still but a child, she might for the
present dispense with the fichu, especially as her curls were long, and
almost touched her shoulders.

There was no appeal against Robert's opinion, therefore his sister was
compelled to yield; but she disapproved entirely of the piquant neatness
of Caroline's costume, and the ladylike grace of her appearance.
Something more solid and homely she would have considered "beaucoup plus
convenable."

The afternoon was devoted to sewing. Mademoiselle, like most Belgian
ladies, was specially skilful with her needle. She by no means thought
it waste of time to devote unnumbered hours to fine embroidery,
sight-destroying lace-work, marvellous netting and knitting, and, above
all, to most elaborate stocking-mending. She would give a day to the
mending of two holes in a stocking any time, and think her "mission"
nobly fulfilled when she had accomplished it. It was another of
Caroline's troubles to be condemned to learn this foreign style of
darning, which was done stitch by stitch, so as exactly to imitate the
fabric of the stocking itself--a wearifu' process, but considered by
Hortense Gerard, and by her ancestresses before her for long generations
back, as one of the first "duties of a woman." She herself had had a
needle, cotton, and a fearfully torn stocking put into her hand while
she yet wore a child's coif on her little black head; her "hauts faits"
in the darning line had been exhibited to company ere she was six years
old; and when she first discovered that Caroline was profoundly ignorant
of this most essential of attainments, she could have wept with pity
over her miserably-neglected youth.

No time did she lose in seeking up a hopeless pair of hose, of which the
heels were entirely gone, and in setting the ignorant English girl to
repair the deficiency. This task had been commenced two years ago, and
Caroline had the stockings in her work-bag yet. She did a few rows every
day, by way of penance for the expiation of her sins. They were a
grievous burden to her; she would much have liked to put them in the
fire; and once Mr. Moore, who had observed her sitting and sighing over
them, had