The Professor .......................................................................................................................................................1

This little book was written before either "Jane Eyre" or "Shirley," and yet no indulgence can be solicited for

it on the plea of a first attempt. A first attempt it certainly was not, as the pen which wrote it had been

previously worn a good deal in a practice of some years. I had not indeed published anything before I

commenced "The Professor," but in many a crude effort, destroyed almost as soon as composed, I had got

over any such taste as I might once have had for ornamented and redundant composition, and come to prefer

what was plain and homely. At the same time I had adopted a set of principles on the subject of incident, such

as would be generally approved in theory, but the result of which, when carried out into practice, often

I said to myself that my hero should work his way through life as I had seen real living men work

theirsthat he should never get a shilling he had not earnedthat no sudden turns should lift him in a

moment to wealth and high station; that whatever small competency he might gain, should be won by the

sweat of his brow; that, before he could find so much as an arbour to sit down in, he should master at least

half the ascent of "the Hill of Difficulty;" that he should not even marry a beautiful girl or a lady of rank. As

Adam's son he should share Adam's doom, and drain throughout life a mixed and moderate cup of enjoyment.

In the sequel, however, I find that publishers in general scarcely approved of this system, but would have

liked something more imaginative and poeticalsomething more consonant with a highly wrought fancy,

with a taste for pathos, with sentiments more tender, elevated, unworldly. Indeed, until an author has tried to

dispose of a manuscript of this kind, he can never know what stores of romance and sensibility lie hidden in

breasts he would not have suspected of casketing such treasures. Men in business are usually thought to

prefer the real; on trial the idea will be often found fallacious: a passionate preference for the wild,

wonderful, and thrillingthe strange, startling, and harrowingagitates divers souls that show a calm and

Such being the case, the reader will comprehend that to have reached him in the form of a printed book, this

brief narrative must have gone through some struggleswhich indeed it has. And after all, its worst struggle

and strongest ordeal is yet to come but it takes comfortsubdues fearleans on the staff of a moderate

expectationand mutters under its breath, while lifting its eye to that of the public,

The foregoing preface was written by my wife with a view to the publication of "The Professor," shortly after

the appearance of "Shirley." Being dissuaded from her intention, the authoress made some use of the

materials in a subsequent work"Villette," As, however, these two stories are in most respects unlike, it has

been represented to me that I ought not to withhold "The Professor" from the public. I have therefore

THE other day, in looking over my papers, I found in my desk the following copy of a letter, sent by me a

"I think when you and I were at Eton together, we were neither of us what could be called popular characters:

you were a sarcastic, observant, shrewd, coldblooded creature; my own portrait I will not attempt to draw,

but I cannot recollect that it was a strikingly attractive onecan you? What animal magnetism drew thee and

me together I know not; certainly I never experienced anything of the Pylades and Orestes sentiment for you,

and I have reason to believe that you, on your part, were equally free from all romantic regard to me. Still, out

of school hours we walked and talked continually together; when the theme of conversation was our

companions or our masters we understood each other, and when I recurred to some sentiment of affection,

some vague love of an excellent or beautiful object, whether in animate or inanimate nature, your sardonic

coldness did not move me. I felt myself superior to that check THEN as I do NOW.

"It is a long time since I wrote to you, and a still longer time since I saw you. Chancing to take up a

newspaper of your county the other day, my eye fell upon your name. I began to think of old times; to run

over the events which have transpired since we separated; and I sat down and commenced this letter. What

you have been doing I know not; but you shall hear, if you choose to listen, how the world has wagged with

"First, after leaving Eton, I had an interview with my maternal uncles, Lord Tynedale and the Hon. John

Seacombe. They asked me if I would enter the Church, and my uncle the nobleman offered me the living of

Seacombe, which is in his gift, if I would; then my other uncle, Mr. Seacombe, hinted that when I became

rector of SeacombecumScaife, I might perhaps be allowed to take, as mistress of my house and head of my

"I declined both the Church and matrimony. A good clergyman is a good thing, but I should have made a

very bad one. As to the wifeoh how like a nightmare is the thought of being bound for life to one of my

cousins! No doubt they are accomplished and pretty; but not an accomplishment, not a charm of theirs,

touches a chord in my bosom. To think of passing the winter evenings by the parlour fireside of Seacombe

Rectory alone with one of themfor instance, the large and wellmodelled statue, Sarahno; I should be a

"When I had declined my uncles' offers they asked me 'what I intended to do?' I said I should reflect. They

reminded me that I had no fortune, and no expectation of any, and, after a considerable pause, Lord Tynedale

demanded sternly, 'Whether I had thoughts of following my father's steps and engaging in trade?' Now, I had

had no thoughts of the sort. I do not think that my turn of mind qualifies me to make a good tradesman; my

taste, my ambition does not lie in that way; but such was the scorn expressed in Lord Tynedale's countenance

as he pronounced the word TRADEsuch the contemptuous sarcasm of his tonethat I was instantly

decided. My father was but a name to me, yet that name I did not like to hear mentioned with a sneer to my

very face. I answered then, with haste and warmth, 'I cannot do better than follow in my father's steps; yes, I

will be a tradesman.' My uncles did not remonstrate; they and I parted with mutual disgust. In reviewing this

transaction, I find that I was quite right to shake off the burden of Tynedale's patronage, but a fool to offer my

shoulders instantly for the reception of another burdenone which might be more intolerable, and which

"I wrote instantly to Edwardyou know Edwardmy only brother, ten years my senior, married to a rich

millowner's daughter, and now possessor of the mill and business which was my father's before he failed.

You are aware that my fatheronce reckoned a Croesus of wealthbecame bankrupt a short time previous to

his death, and that my mother lived in destitution for some six months after him, unhelped by her

aristocratical brothers, whom she had mortally offended by her union with Crimsworth, the shire

manufacturer. At the end of the six months she brought me into the world, and then herself left it without, I

"My father's relations took charge of Edward, as they did of me, till I was nine years old. At that period it

chanced that the representation of an important borough in our county fell vacant; Mr. Seacombe stood for it.

My uncle Crimsworth, an astute mercantile man, took the opportunity of writing a fierce letter to the

candidate, stating that if he and Lord Tynedale did not consent to do something towards the support of their

sister's orphan children, he would expose their relentless and malignant conduct towards that sister, and do

his best to turn the circumstances against Mr. Seacombe's election. That gentleman and Lord T. knew well

enough that the Crimsworths were an unscrupulous and determined race; they knew also that they had

influence in the borough of X; and, making a virtue of necessity, they consented to defray the expenses

of my education. I was sent to Eton, where I remained ten years, during which space of time Edward and I

never met. He, when he grew up, entered into trade, and pursued his calling with such diligence, ability, and

success, that now, in his thirtieth year, he was fast making a fortune. Of this I was apprised by the occasional

short letters I received from him, some three or four times a year; which said letters never concluded without

some expression of determined enmity against the house of Seacombe, and some reproach to me for living, as

he said, on the bounty of that house. At first, while still in boyhood, I could not understand why, as I had no

parents, I should not be indebted to my uncles Tynedale and Seacombe for my education; but as I grew up,

and heard by degrees of the persevering hostility, the hatred till death evinced by them against my fatherof

the sufferings of my motherof all the wrongs, in short, of our housethen did I conceive shame of the

dependence in which I lived, and form a resolution no more to take bread from hands which had refused to

minister to the necessities of my dying mother. It was by these feelings I was influenced when I refused the

"An irreparable breach thus being effected between my uncles and myself, I wrote to Edward; told him what

had occurred, and informed him of my intention to follow his steps and be a tradesman. I asked, moreover, if

he could give me employment. His answer expressed no approbation of my conduct, but he said I might come

down to shire, if I liked, and he would 'see what could be done in the way of furnishing me with work.' I

repressed alleven mental comment on his notepacked my trunk and carpetbag, and started for the

"After two days' travelling (railroads were not then in existence) I arrived, one wet October afternoon, in the

town of X. I had always understood that Edward lived in this town, but on inquiry I found that it was

only Mr. Crimsworth's mill and warehouse which were situated in the smoky atmosphere of Bigben Close;

"It was late in the evening when I alighted at the gates of the habitation designated to me as my brother's. As I

advanced up the avenue, I could see through the shades of twilight, and the dark gloomy mists which

deepened those shades, that the house was large, and the grounds surrounding it sufficiently spacious. I

paused a moment on the lawn in front, and leaning my back against a tall tree which rose in the centre, I

"Edward is rich," thought I to myself. 'I believed him to be doing wellbut I did not know he was master of

a mansion like this.' Cutting short all marvelling; speculation, conjecture, I advanced to the front door and

rang. A manservant opened itI announced myselfhe relieved me of my wet cloak and carpetbag, and

ushered me into a room furnished as a library, where there was a bright fire and candles burning on the table;

he informed me that his master was not yet returned from X market, but that he would certainly be at

"Being left to myself, I took the stuffed easy chair, covered with red morocco, which stood by the fireside,

and while my eyes watched the flames dart from the glowing coals, and the cinders fall at intervals on the

hearth, my mind busied itself in conjectures concerning the meeting about to take place. Amidst much that

was doubtful in the subject of these conjectures, there was one thing tolerably certainI was in no danger of

encountering severe disappointment; from this, the moderation of my expectations guaranteed me. I

anticipated no overflowings of fraternal tenderness; Edward's letters had always been such as to prevent the

engendering or harbouring of delusions of this sort. Still, as I sat awaiting his arrival, I felt eagervery

eagerI cannot tell you why; my hand, so utterly a stranger to the grasp of a kindred hand, clenched itself to

"I thought of my uncles; and as I was engaged in wondering whether Edward's indifference would equal the

cold disdain I had always experienced from them, I heard the avenue gates open: wheels approached the

house; Mr. Crimsworth was arrived; and after the lapse of some minutes, and a brief dialogue between

himself and his servant in the hall, his tread drew near the library doorthat tread alone announced the

"I still retained some confused recollection of Edward as he was ten years agoa tall, wiry, raw youth;

NOW, as I rose from my seat and turned towards the library door, I saw a finelooking and powerful man,

lightcomplexioned, wellmade, and of athletic proportions; the first glance made me aware of an air of

promptitude and sharpness, shown as well in his movements as in his port, his eye, and the general

expression of his face. He greeted me with brevity, and, in the moment of shaking hands, scanned me from

head to foot; he took his seat in the morocco covered armchair, and motioned me to another sent.

"'I expected you would have called at the countinghouse in the Close,' said he; and his voice, I noticed, had

an abrupt accent, probably habitual to him; he spoke also with a guttural northern tone, which sounded harsh

"'The landlord of the inn, where the coach stopped, directed me here,' said I. 'I doubted at first the accuracy of

"'Oh, it is all right!' he replied, 'only I was kept half an hour behind time, waiting for youthat is all. I

"I expressed regret that he had had to wait; he made no answer, but stirred the fire, as if to cover a movement

"I felt an inward satisfaction that I had not, in the first moment of meeting, betrayed any warmth, any

"'I do not think I shall have any further communication with them; my refusal of their proposals will, I fancy,

"'Why,' said he, 'I may as well remind you at the very outset of our connection, that "no man can serve two

masters." Acquaintance with Lord Tynedale will be incompatible with assistance from me.' There was a kind

of gratuitous menace in his eye as he looked at me in finishing this observation.

"Feeling no disposition to reply to him, I contented myself with an inward speculation on the differences

which exist in the constitution of men's minds. I do not know what inference Mr. Crimsworth drew from my

silencewhether he considered it a symptom of contumacity or an evidence of my being cowed by his

peremptory manner. After a long and hard stare at me, he rose sharply from his seat.

"'Tomorrow,' said he, 'I shall call your attention to some other points; but now it is supper time, and Mrs.

"He strode from the room, and I followed. In crossing the hall, I wondered what Mrs. Crimsworth might be.

'Is she,' thought I, 'as alien to what I like as Tynedale, Seacombe, the Misses Seacombeas the affectionate

relative now striding before me? or is she better than these? Shall I, in conversing with her, feel free to show

something of my real nature; or ' Further conjectures were arrested by my entrance into the diningroom.

"A lamp, burning under a shade of groundglass, showed a handsome apartment, wainscoted with oak;

supper was laid on the table; by the fireplace, standing as if waiting our entrance, appeared a lady; she was

young, tall, and well shaped; her dress was handsome and fashionable: so much my first glance sufficed to

ascertain. A gay salutation passed between her and Mr. Crimsworth; she chid him, half playfully, half

poutingly, for being late; her voice (I always take voices into the account in judging of character) was

livelyit indicated, I thought, good animal spirits. Mr. Crimsworth soon checked her animated scolding with

a kissa kiss that still told of the bridegroom (they had not yet been married a year); she took her seat at the

suppertable in firstrate spirits. Perceiving me, she begged my pardon for not noticing me before, and then

shook hands with me, as ladies do when a flow of goodhumour disposes them to be cheerful to all, even the

most indifferent of their acquaintance. It was now further obvious to me that she had a good complexion, and

features sufficiently marked but agreeable; her hair was red quite red. She and Edward talked much,

always in a vein of playful contention; she was vexed, or pretended to be vexed, that he had that day driven a

vicious horse in the gig, and he made light of her fears. Sometimes she appealed to me.

"'Now, Mr. William, isn't it absurd in Edward to talk so? He says he will drive Jack, and no other horse, and

"She spoke with a kind of lisp, not disagreeable, but childish. I soon saw also that there was more than

girlisha somewhat infantine expression in her by no means small features; this lisp and expression were, I

have no doubt, a charm in Edward's eyes, and would be so to those: of most men, but they were not to mine. I

sought her eye, desirous to read there the intelligence which I could not discern in her face or hear in her

conversation; it was merry, rather small; by turns I saw vivacity, vanity, coquetry, look out through its irid,

but I watched in vain for a glimpse of soul. I am no Oriental; white necks, carmine lips and cheeks, clusters

of bright curls, do not suffice for me without that Promethean spark which will live after the roses and lilies

are faded, the burnished hair grown grey. In sunshine, in prosperity, the flowers are very well; but how many

wet days are there in lifeNovember seasons of disaster, when a man's hearth and home would be cold

"Having perused the fair page of Mrs. Crimsworth's face, a deep, involuntary sigh announced my

disappointment; she took it as a homage to her beauty, and Edward, who was evidently proud of his rich and

"I turned from them both, and gazing wearily round the room, I saw two pictures set in the oak

panellingone on each side the mantelpiece. Ceasing to take part in the bantering conversation that flowed

on between Mr. and Mrs. Crimsworth, I bent my thoughts to the examination of these pictures. They were

portraitsa lady and a gentleman, both costumed in the fashion of twenty years ago. The gentleman was in

the shade. I could not see him well. The lady had the benefit of a full beam from the softly shaded lamp. I

presently recognised her; I had seen this picture before in childhood; it was my mother; that and the

companion picture being the only heirlooms saved out of the sale of my father's property.

"The face, I remembered, had pleased me as a boy, but then I did not understand it; now I knew how rare that

class of face is in the world, and I appreciated keenly its thoughtful, yet gentle expression. The serious grey

eye possessed for me a strong charm, as did certain lines in the features indicative of most true and tender

"I soon left Mr. and Mrs. Crimsworth to themselves; a servant conducted me to my bedroom; in closing my

To this letter I never got an answer; before my old friend received it, he had accepted a Government

appointment in one of the colonies, and was already on his way to the scene of his official labours. What has

The leisure time I have at command, and which I intended to employ for his private benefit, I shall now

dedicate to that of the public at large. My narrative is not exciting, and above all, not marvellous; but it may

interest some individuals, who, having toiled in the same vocation as myself, will find in my experience

frequent reflections of their own. The above letter will serve as an introduction. I now proceed.

A FINE October morning succeeded to the foggy evening that had witnessed my first introduction to

Crimsworth Hall. I was early up and walking in the large parklike meadow surrounding the house. The

autumn sun, rising over the shire hills, disclosed a pleasant country; woods brown and mellow varied

the fields from which the harvest had been lately carried; a river, gliding between the woods, caught on its

surface the somewhat cold gleam of the October sun and sky; at frequent intervals along the banks of the

river, tall, cylindrical chimneys, almost like slender round towers, indicated the factories which the trees half

concealed; here and there mansions, similar to Crimsworth Hall, occupied agreeable sites on the hillside; the

country wore, on the whole, a cheerful, active, fertile look. Steam, trade, machinery had long banished from it

all romance and seclusion. At a distance of five miles, a valley, opening between the low hills, held in its

cups the great town of X. A dense, permanent vapour brooded over this localitythere lay Edward's

I forced my eye to scrutinize this prospect, I forced my mind to dwell on it for a time, and when I found that

it communicated no pleasurable emotion to my heartthat it stirred in me none of the hopes a man ought to

feel, when he sees laid before him the scene of his life's careerI said to myself, "William, you are a rebel

against circumstances; you are a fool, and know not what you want; you have chosen trade and you shall be a

tradesman. Look!" I continued mentally"Look at the sooty smoke in that hollow, and know that there is

your post! There you cannot dream, you cannot speculate and theorizethere you shall out and work!"

Thus selfschooled, I returned to the house. My brother was in the breakfastroom. I met him collectedlyI

could not meet him cheerfully; he was standing on the rug, his back to the firehow much did I read in the

expression of his eye as my glance encountered his, when I advanced to bid him good morning; how much

that was contradictory to my nature! He said "Good morning" abruptly and nodded, and then he snatched,

rather than took, a newspaper from the table, and began to read it with the air of a master who seizes a pretext

to escape the bore of conversing with an underling. It was well I had taken a resolution to endure for a time,

or his manner would have gone far to render insupportable the disgust I had just been endeavouring to

subdue. I looked at him: I measured his robust frame and powerful proportions; I saw my own reflection in

the mirror over the mantelpiece; I amused myself with comparing the two pictures. In face I resembled him,

though I was not so handsome; my features were less regular; I had a darker eye, and a broader browin

form I was greatly inferiorthinner, slighter, not so tall. As an animal, Edward excelled me far; should he

prove as paramount in mind as in person I must be a slavefor I must expect from him no lionlike

generosity to one weaker than himself; his cold, avaricious eye, his stern, forbidding manner told me he

would not spare. Had I then force of mind to cope with him? I did not know; I had never been tried.

Mrs. Crimsworth's entrance diverted my thoughts for a moment. She looked well, dressed in white, her face

and her attire shining in morning and bridal freshness. I addressed her with the degree of ease her last night's

careless gaiety seemed to warrant, but she replied with coolness and restraint: her husband had tutored her;

As soon as breakfast was over Mr. Crimsworth intimated to me that they were bringing the gig round to the

door, and that in five minutes he should expect me to be ready to go down with him to X. I did not keep

him waiting; we were soon dashing at a rapid rate along the road. The horse he drove was the same vicious

animal about which Mrs. Crimsworth had expressed her fears the night before. Once or twice Jack seemed

disposed to turn restive, but a vigorous and determined application of the whip from the ruthless hand of his

master soon compelled him to submission, and Edward's dilated nostril expressed his triumph in the result of

the contest; he scarcely spoke to me during the whole of the brief drive, only opening his lips at intervals to

X was all stir and bustle when we entered it; we left the clean streets where there were dwellinghouses

and shops, churches, and public buildings; we left all these, and turned down to a region of mills and

warehouses; thence we passed through two massive gates into a great paved yard, and we were in Bigben

Close, and the mill was before us, vomiting soot from its long chimney, and quivering through its thick brick

walls with the commotion of its iron bowels. Workpeople were passing to and fro; a waggon was being laden

with pieces. Mr. Crimsworth looked from side to side, and seemed at one glance to comprehend all that was

going on; he alighted, and leaving his horse and gig to the care of a man who hastened to take the reins from

his hand, he bid me follow him to the countinghouse. We entered it; a very different place from the parlours

of Crimsworth Halla place for business, with a bare, planked floor, a safe, two high desks and stools, and

some chairs. A person was seated at one of the desks, who took off his square cap when Mr. Crimsworth

entered, and in an instant was again absorbed in his occupation of writing or calculatingI know not which.

Mr, Crimsworth, having removed his mackintosh, sat down by the fire. I remained standing near the hearth;

"Steighton, you may leave the room; I have some business to transact with this gentleman. Come back when

The individual at the desk rose and departed, closing the door as he went out. Mr. Crimsworth stirred the fire,

then folded his arms, and sat a moment thinking, his lips compressed, his brow knit. I had nothing to do but

to watch himhow well his features were cut! what a handsome man he was! Whence, then, came that air of

"Well, I am not bound to help you, but I have a place here vacant, if you are qualified for it. I will take you on

trial. What can you do? Do you know anything besides that useless trash of college learningGreek, Latin,

"Hum!" He reflected a moment, then opening a drawer in a desk near him took out a letter, and gave it to me.

It was a German commercial letter; I translated it; I could not tell whether he was gratified or nothis

"It is well;" hesaid, after a pause, "that you are acquainted with something useful, something that may

enable you to earn your board and lodging: since you know French and German, I will take you as second

clerk to manage the foreign correspondence of the house. I shall give you a good salary90l. a yearand

now," he continued, raising his voice, "hear once for all what I have to say about our relationship, and all that

sort of humbug! I must have no nonsense on that point; it would never suit me. I shall excuse you nothing on

the plea of being my brother; if I find you stupid, negligent, dissipated, idle, or possessed of any faults

detrimental to the interests of the house, I shall dismiss you as I would any other clerk. Ninety pounds a year

are good wages, and I expect to have the full value of my money out of you; remember, too, that things are on

a practical footing in my establishmentbusinesslike habits, feelings, and ideas, suit me best. Do you

"Partly," I replied. "I suppose you mean that I am to do my work for my wages; not to expect favour from

you, and not to depend on you for any help but what I earn; that suits me exactly, and on these terms I will

I turned on my heel, and walked to the window; this time I did not consult his face to learn his opinion: what

it was I do not know, nor did I then care. After a silence of some minutes he recommenced:

"You perhaps expect to be accommodated with apartments at Crimsworth Hall, and to go and come with me

in the gig. I wish you, however, to be aware that such an arrangement would be quite inconvenient to me. I

like to have the seat in my gig at liberty for any gentleman whom for business reasons I may wish to take

"Of course I shall seek out lodgings in X," I answered. "It would not suit me either to lodge at

My tone was quiet. I always speak quietly. Yet Mr. Crimsworth's blue eye became incensed; he took his

"You are poor enough, I suppose; how do you expect to live till your quarter's salary becomes due?"

"Get into debt at your peril! that's all," he answered. "For aught I know you may have extravagant aristocratic

habits: if you have, drop them; I tolerate nothing of the sort here, and I will never give you a shilling extra,

I said no more. I did not think the time was come for much parley. I had an instinctive feeling that it would be

folly to let one's temper effervesce often with such a man as Edward. I said to myself, "I will place my cup

under this continual dropping; it shall stand there still and steady; when full, it will run over of

itselfmeantime patience. Two things are certain. I am capable of performing the work Mr. Crimsworth has

set me; I can earn my wages conscientiously, and those wages are sufficient to enable me to live. As to the

fact of my brother assuming towards me the bearing of a proud, harsh master, the fault is his, not mine; and

shall his injustice, his bad feeling, turn me at once aside from the path I have chosen? No; at least, ere I

deviate, I will advance far enough to see whither my career tends. As yet I am only pressing in at the

entrancea strait gate enough; it ought to have a good terminus." While I thus reasoned, Mr. Crimsworth

rang a bell; his first clerk, the individual dismissed previously to our conference, reentered.

"Mr. Steighton," said he, "show Mr. William the letters from Voss, Brothers, and give him English copies of

Mr. Steighton, a man of about thirtyfive, with a face at once sly and heavy, hastened to execute this order;

he laid the letters on the desk, and I was soon seated at it, and engaged in rendering the English answers into

German. A sentiment of keen pleasure accompanied this first effort to earn my own livinga sentiment

neither poisoned nor weakened by the presence of the taskmaster, who stood and watched me for some time

as I wrote. I thought he was trying to read my character, but I felt as secure against his scrutiny as if I had had

on a casque with the visor downor rather I showed him my countenance with the confidence that one would

show an unlearned man a letter written in Greek; he might see lines, and trace characters, but he could make

nothing of them; my nature was not his nature, and its signs were to him like the words of an unknown

tongue. Ere long he turned away abruptly, as if baffled, and left the countinghouse; he returned to it but

twice in the course of that day; each time he mixed and swallowed a glass of brandyandwater, the

materials for making which he extracted from a cupboard on one side of the fireplace; having glanced at my

I SERVED Edward as his second clerk faithfully, punctually, diligently. What was given me to do I had the

power and the determination to do well. Mr. Crimsworth watched sharply for defects, but found none; he set

Timothy Steighton, his favourite and head man, to watch also. Tim was baffled; I was as exact as himself,

and quicker. Mr. Crimsworth made inquiries as to how I lived, whether I got into debtno, my accounts

with my landlady were always straight. I had hired small lodgings, which I contrived to pay for out of a

slender fundthe accumulated savings of my Eton pocketmoney; for as it had ever been abhorrent to my

nature to ask pecuniary assistance, I had early acquired habits of selfdenying economy; husbanding my

monthly allowance with anxious care, in order to obviate the danger of being forced, in some moment of

future exigency, to beg additional aid. I remember many called me miser at the time, and I used to couple the

reproach with this consolationbetter to be misunderstood now than repulsed hereafter. At this day I had my

reward; I had had it before, when on parting with my irritated uncles one of them threw down on the table

before me a 5l. note, which I was able to leave there, saying that my travelling expenses were already

provided for. Mr. Crimsworth employed Tim to find out whether my landlady had any complaint to make on

the score of my morals; she answered that she believed I was a very religious man, and asked Tim, in her

turn, if he thought I had any intention of going into the Church some day; for, she said, she had had young

curates to lodge in her house who were nothing equal to me for steadiness and quietness. Tim was "a

religious man" himself; indeed, he was "a joined Methodist," which did not (be it understood) prevent him

from being at the same time an engrained rascal, and he came away much posed at hearing this account of my

piety. Having imparted it to Mr. Crimsworth, that gentleman, who himself frequented no place of worship,

and owned no God but Mammon, turned the information into a weapon of attack against the equability of my

temper. He commenced a series of covert sneers, of which I did not at first perceive the drift, till my landlady

happened to relate the conversation she had had with Mr. Steighton; this enlightened me; afterwards I came

to the countinghouse prepared, and managed to receive the millowner's blasphemous sarcasms, when next

levelled at me, on a buckler of impenetrable indifference. Ere long he tired of wasting his ammunition on a

statue, but he did not throw away the shaftshe only kept them quiet in his quiver.

Once during my clerkship I had an invitation to Crimsworth Hall; it was on the occasion of a large party

given in honour of the master's birthday; he had always been accustomed to invite his clerks on similar

anniversaries, and could not well pass me over; I was, however, kept strictly in the background. Mrs.

Crimsworth, elegantly dressed in satin and lace, blooming in youth and health, vouchsafed me no more notice

than was expressed by a distant move; Crimsworth, of course, never spoke to me; I was introduced to none of

the band of young ladies, who, enveloped in silvery clouds of white gauze and muslin, sat in array against me

on the opposite side of a long and large room; in fact, I was fairly isolated, and could but contemplate the

shining ones from affar, and when weary of such a dazzling scene, turn for a change to the consideration of

the carpet pattern. Mr. Crimsworth, standing on the rug, his elbow supported by the marble mantelpiece, and

about him a group of very pretty girls, with whom he conversed gailyMr. Crimsworth, thus placed,

glanced at me; I looked weary, solitary, kept down like some desolate tutor or governess; he was satisfied.

Dancing began; I should have liked well enough to be introduced to some pleasing and intelligent girl, and to

have freedom and opportunity to show that I could both feel and communicate the pleasure of social

intercoursethat I was not, in short, a block, or a piece of furniture, but an acting, thinking, sentient man.

Many smiling faces and graceful figures glided past me, but the smiles were lavished on other eyes, the

figures sustained by other hands than mine. I turned away tantalized, left the dancers, and wandered into the

oakpanelled diningroom. No fibre of sympathy united me to any living thing in this house; I looked for

and found my mother's picture. I took a wax taper from a stand, and held it up. I gazed long, earnestly; my

heart grew to the image. My mother, I perceived, had bequeathed to me much of her features and

countenanceher forehead, her eyes, her complexion. No regular beauty pleases egotistical human beings so

much as a softened and refined likeness of themselves; for this reason, fathers regard with complacency the

lineaments of their daughters' faces, where frequently their own similitude is found flatteringly associated

with softness of hue and delicacy of outline. I was just wondering how that picture, to me so interesting,

would strike an impartial spectator, when a voice close behind me pronounced the words

I turned; at my elbow stood a tall man, young, though probably five or six years older than Iin other

respects of an appearance the opposite to common place; though just now, as I am not disposed to paint his

portrait in detail, the reader must be content with the silhouette I have just thrown off; it was all I myself saw

of him for the moment: I did not investigate the colour of his eyebrows, nor of his eyes either; I saw his

stature, and the outline of his shape; I saw, too, his fastidiouslooking RETROUSSE nose; these

observations, few in number, and general in character (the last excepted), sufficed, for they enabled me to

"Good evening, Mr. Hunsden," muttered I with a bow, and then, like a shy noodle as I was, I began moving

awayand why? Simply because Mr. Hunsden was a manufacturer and a millowner, and I was only a clerk,

and my instinct propelled me from my superior. I had frequently seen Hunsden in Bigben Close, where he

came almost weekly to transact business with Mr. Crimsworth, but I had never spoken to him, nor he to me,

and I owed him a sort of involuntary grudge, because he had more than once been the tacit witness of insults

offered by Edward to me. I had the conviction that he could only regard me as a poorspirited slave,

"Where are you going?" asked he, as I edged off sideways. I had already noticed that Mr. Hunsden indulged

"He thinks he may speak as he likes to a poor clerk; but my mood is not, perhaps, so supple as he deems it,

I made some slight reply, rather indifferent than courteous, and continued to move away. He coolly planted

"Stay here awhile," said he: "it is so hot in the dancingroom; besides, you don't dance; you have not had a

He was right, and as he spoke neither his look, tone, nor manner displeased me; my AMOURPROPRE was

propitiated; he had not addressed me out of condescension, but because, having repaired to the cool

diningroom for refreshment, he now wanted some one to talk to, by way of temporary amusement. I hate to

"Pretty! nohow can it be pretty, with sunk eyes and hollow cheeks? but it is peculiar; it seems to think.

You could have a talk with that woman, if she were alive, on other subjects than dress, visiting, and

"Not that I admire a head of that sort; it wants character and force; there's too much of the sensitive (so he

articulated it, curling his lip at the same time) in that mouth; besides, there is Aristocrat written on the brow

"You think, then, Mr. Hunsden, that patrician descent may be read in a distinctive cast of form and features?"

"Patrician descent be hanged! Who doubts that your lordlings may have their 'distinctive cast of form and

features' as much as we shire tradesmen have ours? But which is the best? Not theirs assuredly. As to

their women, it is a little different: they cultivate beauty from childhood upwards, and may by care and

training attain to a certain degree of excellence in that point, just like the oriental odalisques. Yet even this

superiority is doubtful. Compare the figure in that frame with Mrs. Edward Crimsworthwhich is the finer

"Oh, Crimsworth is better filled up than I am, I know besides he has a straight nose, arched eyebrows, and all

that; but these advantagesif they are advantageshe did not inherit from his mother, the patrician, but

from his father, old Crimsworth, who, MY father says, was as veritable a shire bluedyer as ever put

indigo in a vat yet withal the handsomest man in the three Ridings. It is you, William, who are the aristocrat

of your family, and you are not as fine a fellow as your plebeian brother by long chalk."

There was something in Mr. Hunsden's pointblank mode of speech which rather pleased me than otherwise

because it set me at my ease. I continued the conversation with a degree of interest.

"How do you happen to know that I am Mr. Crimsworth's brother? I thought you and everybody else looked

"Well, and so we do; and what are you but a poor clerk? You do Crimsworth's work, and he gives you

I was silent. Hunsden's language now bordered on the impertinent, still his manner did not offend me in the

leastit only piqued my curiosity; I wanted him to go on, which he did in a little while.

I wonder you should ask: you are yourself a strong proof of the absurdity I allude to."

I was determined he should explain himself of his own accord, without my pressing him so to doso I

"Humph! the more fool youyou look like a tradesman! What a practical businesslike face you have!"

"The Lord never made either year face or head for X What good can your bumps of ideality,

comparison, selfesteem, conscientiousness, do you here? But if you like Bigben Close, stay there; it's your

"Well, I care nought about itit will make little difference to me what you do or where you go; but I'm cool

nowI want to dance again; and I see such a fine girl sitting in the corner of the sofa there by her mamma;

see if I don't get her for a partner in a jiffy! There's WaddySam Waddy making up to her; won't I cut him

And Mr. Hunsden strode away. I watched him through the open foldingdoors; he outstripped Waddy,

applied for the hand of the fine girl, and led her off triumphant. She was a tall, wellmade, fullformed,

dashinglydressed young woman, much in the style of Mrs. E. Crimsworth; Hunsden whirled her through the

waltz with spirit; he kept at her side during the remainder of the evening, and I read in her animated and

gratified countenance that he succeeded in making himself perfectly agreeable. The mamma too (a stout

person in a turbanMrs. Lupton by name) looked well pleased; prophetic visions probably flattered her

inward eye. The Hunsdens were of an old stem; and scornful as Yorke (such was my late interlocutor's name)

professed to be of the advantages of birth, in his secret heart he well knew and fully appreciated the

distinction his ancient, if not high lineage conferred on him in a mushroomplace like X, concerning

whose inhabitants it was proverbially said, that not one in a thousand knew his own grandfather. Moreover

the Hunsdens, once rich, were still independent; and report affirmed that Yorke bade fair, by his success in

business, to restore to pristine prosperity the partially decayed fortunes of his house. These circumstances

considered, Mrs. Lupton's broad face might well wear a smile of complacency as she contemplated the heir of

Hunsden Wood occupied in paying assiduous court to her darling Sarah Martha. I, however, whose

observations being less anxious, were likely to be more accurate, soon saw that the grounds for maternal

selfcongratulation were slight indeed; the gentleman appeared to me much more desirous of making, than

susceptible of receiving an impression. I know not what it was in Mr. Hunsden that, as I watched him (I had

nothing better to do), suggested to me, every now and then, the idea of a foreigner. In form and features he

might be pronounced English, though even there one caught a dash of something Gallic; but he had no

English shyness: he had learnt somewhere, somehow, the art of setting himself quite at his ease, and of

allowing no insular timidity to intervene as a barrier between him and his convenience or pleasure.

Refinement he did not affect, yet vulgar he could not be called; he was not oddno quizyet he resembled

no one else I had ever seen before; his general bearing intimated complete, sovereign satisfaction with

himself; yet, at times, an indescribable shade passed like an eclipse over his countenance, and seemed to me

like the sign of a sudden and strong inward doubt of himself, his words and actionsan energetic discontent at

his life or his social position, his future prospects or his mental attainmentsI know not which; perhaps after

No man likes to acknowledge that he has made a mistake in the choice of his profession, and every man,

worthy of the name, will row long against wind and tide before he allows himself to cry out, "I am baffled!"

and submits to be floated passively back to land. From the first week of my residence in X I felt my

occupation irksome. The thing itselfthe work of copying and translating businessletterswas a dry and

tedious task enough, but had that been all, I should long have borne with the nuisance; I am not of an

impatient nature, and influenced by the double desire of getting my living and justifying to myself and others

the resolution I had taken to become a tradesman, I should have endured in silence the rust and cramp of my

best faculties; I should not have whispered, even inwardly, that I longed for liberty; I should have pent in

every sigh by which my heart might have ventured to intimate its distress under the closeness, smoke,

monotony and joyless tumult of Bigben Close, and its panting desire for freer and fresher scenes; I should

have set up the image of Duty, the fetish of Perseverance, in my small bedroom at Mrs. King's lodgings, and

they two should have been my household gods, from which my darling, my cherishedinsecret,

Imagination, the tender and the mighty, should never, either by softness or strength, have severed me. But

this was not all; the antipathy which had sprung up between myself and my employer striking deeper root and

spreading denser shade daily, excluded me from every glimpse of the sunshine of life; and I began to feel like

Antipathy is the only word which can express the feeling Edward Crimsworth had for mea feeling, in a

great measure, involuntary, and which was liable to be excited by every, the most trifling movement, look, or

word of mine. My southern accent annoyed him; the degree of education evinced in my language irritated

him; my punctuality, industry, and accuracy, fixed his dislike, and gave it the high flavour and poignant relish

of envy; he feared that I too should one day make a successful tradesman. Had I been in anything inferior to

him, he would not have hated me so thoroughly, but I knew all that he knew, and, what was worse, he

suspected that I kept the padlock of silence on mental wealth in which he was no sharer. If he could have

once placed me in a ridiculous or mortifying position, he would have forgiven me much, but I was guarded

by three facultiesCaution, Tact, Observation; and prowling and prying as was Edward's malignity, it could

never baffle the lynxeyes of these, my natural sentinels. Day by day did his malice watch my tact, hoping it

would sleep, and prepared to steal snakelike on its slumber; but tact, if it be genuine, never sleeps.

I had received my first quarter's wages, and was returning to my lodgings, possessed heart and soul with the

pleasant feeling that the master who had paid me grudged every penny of that hardearned pittance(I had

long ceased to regard Mr. Crimsworth as my brotherhe was a hard, grinding master; he wished to be an

inexorable tyrant: that was all). Thoughts, not varied but strong, occupied my mind; two voices spoke within

me; again and again they uttered the same monotonous phrases. One said: "William, your life is intolerable."

The other: "What can you do to alter it?" I walked fast, for it was a cold, frosty night in January; as I

approached my lodgings, I turned from a general view of my affairs to the particular speculation as to

whether my fire would be out; looking towards the window of my sittingroom, I saw no cheering red gleam.

"That slut of a servant has neglected it as usual," said I, "and I shall see nothing but pale ashes if I go in; it is

It WAS a fine night, and the streets were dry and even clean for X; there was a crescent curve of

moonlight to be seen by the parish church tower, and hundreds of stars shone keenly bright in all quarters of

Unconsciously I steered my course towards the country; I had got into Grovestreet, and began to feel the

pleasure of seeing dim trees at the extremity, round a suburban house, when a person leaning over the iron

gate of one of the small gardens which front the neat dwellinghouses in this street, addressed me as I was

"What the deuce is the hurry? Just so must Lot have left Sodom, when he expected fire to pour down upon it,

I stopped short, and looked towards the speaker. I smelt the fragrance, and saw the red spark of a cigar; the

"You see I am meditating in the field at eventide," continued this shade. "God knows it's cool work!

especially as instead of Rebecca on a camel's hump, with bracelets on her arms and a ring in her nose, Fate

sends me only a countinghouse clerk, in a grey tweed wrapper." The voice was familiar to meits second

"Good evening, indeed! yes, but you would have passed me without recognition if I had not been so civil as

"A famous excuse! You ought to have known me; I knew you, though you were going ahead like a

"It wouldn't be worth their while; I'm not of consequence enough to attract them.

"Alas, poor shepherd! Alack and welladay! What a theme for regret, and how down in the mouth you must

be, judging from the sound of your voice! But since you're not running from the police, from whom are you

"That is wellyou're just in luck: this is Tuesday evening; there are scores of market gigs and carts returning

to Dinneford tonight; and he, or some of his, have a seat in all regularly; so, if you'll step in and sit

halfanhour in my bachelor's parlour, you may catch him as he passes without much trouble. I think though

you'd better let him alone tonight, he'll have so many customers to serve; Tuesday is his busy day in X

"As you pleaseI'm alone; your company for an hour or two would be agreeable to me; but, if you don't

It suited me to accept the invitation as it suited Hunsden to give it. I passed through the gate, and followed

him to the front door, which he opened; thence we traversed a passage, and entered his parlour; the door

being shut, he pointed me to as armchair by the hearth; I sat down, and glanced round me.

It was a comfortable room, at once snug and handsome; the bright grate was filled with a genuine shire

fire, red, clear, and generous, no penurious SouthofEngland embers heaped in the corner of a grate. On the

table a shaded lamp diffused around a soft, pleasant, and equal light; the furniture was almost luxurious for a

young bachelor, comprising a couch and two very easy chairs; bookshelves filled the recesses on each side of

the mantelpiece; they were wellfurnished, and arranged with perfect order. The neatness of the room suited

my taste; I hate irregular and slovenly habits. From what I saw I concluded that Hunsden's ideas on that point

corresponded with my own. While he removed from the centretable to the sideboard a few pamphlets and

periodicals, I ran my eye along the shelves of the bookcase nearest me. French and German works

predominated, the old French dramatists, sundry modern authors, Thiers, Villemain, Paul de Kock, George

Sand, Eugene Sue; in GermanGoethe, Schiller, Zschokke, Jean Paul Richter; in English there were works

on Political Economy. I examined no further, for Mr. Hunsden himself recalled my attention.

"You shall have something," said he, "for you ought to feel disposed for refreshment after walking nobody

knows how far on such a Canadian night as this; but it shall not be brandyandwater, and it shall not be a

bottle of port, nor ditto of sherry. I keep no such poison. I have Rheinwein for my own drinking, and you

Here again Hunsden suited me: if there was one generally received practice I abhorred more than another, it

was the habitual imbibing of spirits and strong wines. I had, however, no fancy for his acid German nectar,

I perceived my answer pleased him; he had doubtless expected to see a chilling effect produced by his steady

announcement that he would give me neither wine nor spirits; he just shot one searching glance at my face to

ascertain whether my cordiality was genuine or a mere feint of politeness. I smiled, because I quite

understood him; and, while I honoured his conscientious firmness, I was amused at his mistrust; he seemed

satisfied, rang the bell, and ordered coffee, which was presently brought; for himself, a bunch of grapes and

half a pint of something sour sufficed. My coffee was excellent; I told him so, and expressed the shuddering

pity with which his anchorite fare inspired me. He did not answer, and I scarcely think heard my remark. At

that moment one of those momentary eclipses I before alluded to had come over his face, extinguishing his

smile, and replacing, by an abstracted and alienated look, the customarily shrewd, bantering glance of his eye.

I employed the interval of silence in a rapid scrutiny of his physiognomy. I had never observed him closely

before; and, as my sight is very short, I had gathered only a vague, general idea of his appearance; I was

surprised now, on examination, to perceive how small, and even feminine, were his lineaments; his tall

figure, long and dark locks, his voice and general bearing, had impressed me with the notion of something

powerful and massive; not at all:my own features were cast in a harsher and squarer mould than his. I

discerned that there would be contrasts between his inward and outward man; contentions, too; for I

suspected his soul had more of will and ambition than his body had of fibre and muscle. Perhaps, in these

incompatibilities of the "physique" with the "morale," lay the secret of that fitful gloom; he WOULD but

COULD not, and the athletic mind scowled scorn on its more fragile companion. As to his good looks, I

should have liked to have a woman's opinion on that subject; it seemed to me that his face might produce the

same effect on a lady that a very piquant and interesting, though scarcely pretty, female face would on a man.

I have mentioned his dark locksthey were brushed sideways above a white and sufficiently expansive

forehead; his cheek had a rather hectic freshness; his features might have done well on canvas, but

indifferently in marble: they were plastic; character had set a stamp upon each; expression recast them at her

pleasure, and strange metamorphoses she wrought, giving him now the mien of a morose bull, and anon that

of an arch and mischievous girl; more frequently, the two semblances were blent, and a queer, composite

"William! what a fool you are to live in those dismal lodgings of Mrs. King's, when you might take rooms

"What of that? It would do you good to walk there and back two or three times a day; besides, are you such a

What are you then? You sit at that desk in Crimsworth's countinghouse day by day and week by week,

scraping with a pen on paper, just like an automaton; you never get up; you never say you are tired; you never

ask for a holiday; you never take change or relaxation; you give way to no excess of an evening; you neither

"Don't think to pose me with short questions; your case and mine are diametrically different, and it is

nonsense attempting to draw a parallel. I say, that when a man endures patiently what ought to be

"Why, man, do you suppose you are a mystery? The other night you seemed surprised at my knowing to what

family you belonged; now you find subject for wonderment in my calling you patient. What do you think I do

with my eyes and ears? I've been in your countinghouse more than once when Crimsworth has treated you

like a dog; called for a book, for instance, and when you gave him the wrong one, or what he chose to

consider the wrong one, flung it back almost in your face; desired you to shut or open the door as if you had

been his flunkey; to say nothing of your position at the party about a month ago, where you had neither place

nor partner, but hovered about like a poor, shabby hangeron; and how patient you were under each and all

"I can hardly tell you what then; the conclusion to be drawn as to your character depends upon the nature of

the motives which guide your conduct; if you are patient because you expect to make something eventually

out of Crimsworth, notwithstanding his tyranny, or perhaps by means of it, you are what the world calls an

interested and mercenary, but may be a very wise fellow; if you are patient because you think it a duty to

meet insult with submission, you are an essential sap, and in no shape the man for my money; if you are

patient because your nature is phlegmatic, flat, inexcitable, and that you cannot get up to the pitch of

resistance, why, God made you to be crushed; and lie down by all means, and lie flat, and let Juggernaut ride

Mr. Hunsden's eloquence was not, it will be perceived, of the smooth and oily order. As he spoke, he pleased

me ill. I seem to recognize in him one of those characters who, sensitive enough themselves, are selfishly

relentless towards the sensitiveness of others. Moreover, though he was neither like Crimsworth nor Lord

Tynedale, yet he was acrid, and, I suspected, overbearing in his way: there was a tone of despotism in the

urgency of the very reproaches by which, he aimed at goading the oppressed into rebellion against the

oppressor. Looking at him still more fixedly than I had yet done, I saw written in his eye and mien a

resolution to arrogate to himself a freedom so unlimited that it might often trench on the just liberty of his

neighbours. I rapidly ran over these thoughts, and then I laughed a low and involuntary laugh, moved thereto

by a slight inward revelation of the inconsistency of man. It was as I thought: Hunsden had expected me to

take with calm his incorrect and offensive surmises, his bitter and haughty taunts; and himself was chafed by

"Yes," he began, "I told you that you were an aristocrat, and who but an aristocrat would laugh such a laugh

as that, and look such a look? A laugh frigidly jeering; a look lazily mutinous; gentlemanlike irony, patrician

resentment. What a nobleman you would have made, William Crimsworth! You are cut out for one; pity

Fortune has baulked Nature! Look at the features, figure, even to the handsdistinction all overugly

distinction! Now, if you'd only an estate and a mansion, and a park, and a title, how you could play the

exclusive, maintain the rights of your class, train your tenantry in habits of respect to the peerage, oppose at

every step the advancing power of the people, support your rotten order, and be ready for its sake to wade

kneedeep in churls' blood; as it is, you've no power; you can do nothing; you're wrecked and stranded on the

shores of commerce; forced into collision with practical men, with whom you cannot cope, for YOU'LL

The first part of Hunsden's speech moved me not at all, or, if it did, it was only to wonder at the perversion

into which prejudice had twisted his judgment of my character; the concluding sentence, however, not only

moved, but shook me; the blow it gave was a severe one, because Truth wielded the weapon. If I smiled now,

"You'll make nothing by trade," continued he; "nothing more than the crust of dry bread and the draught of

fair water on which you now live; your only chance of getting a competency lies in marrying a rich widow, or

"I leave such shifts to be put in practice by those who devise them," said I, rising.

"And even that is hopeless," he went on coolly. "What widow would have you? Much less, what heiress?

You're not bold and venturesome enough for the one, nor handsome and fascinating enough for the other.

You think perhaps you look intelligent and polished; carry your intellect and refinement to market, and tell

Mr. Hunsden had taken his tone for the night; the string he struck was out of tune, he would finger no other.

Averse to discord, of which I had enough every day and all day long, I concluded, at last, that silence and

"What! Are you going, lad? Well, goodnight: you'll find the door." And he sat still in front of the fire, while

I left the room and the house. I had got a good way on my return to my lodgings before I found out that I was

walking very fast, and breathing very hard, and that my nails were almost stuck into the palms of my

clenched hands, and that my teeth were set fast; on making this discovery, I relaxed both my pace, fists, and

jaws, but I could not so soon cause the regrets rushing rapidly through my mind to slacken their tide. Why did

I make myself a tradesman? Why did I enter Hunsden's house this evening? Why, at dawn tomorrow, must I

repair to Crimsworth's mill? All that night did I ask myself these questions, and all that night fiercely

demanded of my soul an answer. I got no sleep; my head burned, my feet froze; at last the factory bells rang,

THERE is a climax to everything, to every state of feeling as well as to every position in life. I turned this

truism over in my mind as, in the frosty dawn of a January morning, I hurried down the steep and now icy

street which descended from Mrs. King's to the Close. The factory workpeople had preceded me by nearly an

hour, and the mill was all lighted up and in full operation when I reached it. I repaired to my post in the

countinghouse as usual; the fire there, but just lit, as yet only smoked; Steighton had not yet arrived. I shut

the door and sat down at the desk; my hands, recently washed in halffrozen water, were still numb; I could

not write till they had regained vitality, so I went on thinking, and still the theme of my thoughts was the

"climax." Selfdissatisfaction troubled exceedingly the current of my meditations.

"Come, William Crimsworth," said my conscience, or whatever it is that within ourselves takes ourselves to

task"come, get a clear notion of what you would have, or what you would not have. You talk of a climax;

pray has your endurance reached its climax? It is not four months old. What a fine resolute fellow you

imagined yourself to be when you told Tynedale you would tread in your father's steps, and a pretty treading

you are likely to make of it! How well you like X! Just at this moment how redolent of pleasant

associations are its streets, its shops, its warehouses, its factories! How the prospect of this day cheers you!

Lettercopying till noon, solitary dinner at your lodgings, lettercopying till evening, solitude; for you

neither find pleasure in Brown's, nor Smith's, nor Nicholl's, nor Eccle's company; and as to Hunsden, you

fancied there was pleasure to be derived from his societyhe! he! how did you like the taste you had of him

last night? was it sweet? Yet he is a talented, an originalminded man, and even he does not like you; your

selfrespect defies you to like him; he has always seen you to disadvantage; he always will see you to

disadvantage; your positions are unequal, and were they on the same level your minds could not; assimilate;

never hope, then, to gather the honey of friendship out of that thornguarded plant. Hello, Crimsworth! where

are your thoughts tending? You leave the recollection of Hunsden as a bee would a rock, as a bird a desert;

and your aspirations spread eager wings towards a land of visions where, now in advancing daylightin

X daylightyou dare to dream of congeniality, repose, union. Those three you will never meet in this

world; they are angels. The souls of just men made perfect may encounter them in heaven, but your soul will

never be made perfect. Eight o'clock strikes! your hands are thawed, get to work!"

"Work? why should I work?" said I sullenly: "I cannot please though I toil like a slave." "Work, work!"

reiterated the inward voice. "I may work, it will do no good," I growled; but nevertheless I drew out a packet

of letters and commenced my tasktask thankless and bitter as that of the Israelite crawling over the

sunbaked fields of Egypt in search of straw and stubble wherewith to accomplish his tale of bricks.

About ten o'clock I heard Mr. Crimsworth's gig turn into the yard, and in a minute or two he entered the

countinghouse. It was his custom to glance his eye at Steighton and myself, to hang up his mackintosh,

stand a minute with his back to the fire, and then walk out. Today he did not deviate from his usual habits; the

only difference was that when he looked at me, his brow, instead of being merely hard, was surly; his eye,

instead of being cold, was fierce. He studied me a minute or two longer than usual, but went out in silence.

Twelve o'clock arrived; the bell rang for a suspension of labour; the workpeople went off to their dinners;

Steighton, too, departed, desiring me to lock the countinghouse door, and take the key with me. I was tying

up a bundle of papers, and putting them in their place, preparatory to closing my desk, when Crimsworth

"You'll stay here a minute," said he, in a deep, brutal voice, while his nostrils distended and his eye shot a

Alone with Edward I remembered our relationship, and remembering that forgot the difference of position; I

"You'll stay here!" he reiterated. "And take your hand off that key! leave it in the lock!"

"Do as I order," was the answer, "and no questions! You are my servant, obey me! What have you been

about?" He was going on in the same breath, when an abrupt pause announced that rage had for the

"You may look, if you wish to know," I replied. "There is the open desk, there are the papers."

"Hypocrite and twaddler! Smoothfaced, snivelling greasehorn!" (this last term is, I believe, purely shire,

and alludes to the horn of black, rancid whaleoil, usually to be seen suspended to cartwheels, and

"Come, Edward Crimsworth, enough of this. It is time you and I wound up accounts. I have now given your

service three months' trial, and I find it the most nauseous slavery under the sun. Seek another clerk. I stay no

"What I do you dare to give me notice? Stop at least for your wages." He took down the heavy gig whip

I permitted myself to laugh with a degree of scorn I took no pains to temper or hide. His fury boiled up, and

when he had sworn halfadozen vulgar, impious oaths, without, however, venturing to lift the whip, he

"I've found you out and know you thoroughly, you mean, whining lickspittle! What have you been saying all

"You lie! It is your practice to talk about me; it is your constant habit to make public complaint of the

treatment you receive at my hands. You have gone and told it far and near that I give you low wages and

knock you about like a dog. I wish you were a dog! I'd setto this minute, and never stir from the spot till I'd

He flourished his tool. The end of the lash just touched my forehead. A warm excited thrill ran through my

veins, my blood seemed to give abound, and then raced fast and hot along its channels. I got up nimbly, came

"To you. There is no one else present, I think. You say I have been calumniating youcomplaining of your

Crimsworth had no dignity, and when I sternly demanded an explanation, he gave one in a loud, scolding

"Grounds I you shall have them; and turn to the light that I may see your brazen face blush black, when you

hear yourself proved to be a liar and a hypocrite. At a public meeting in the Townhall yesterday, I had the

pleasure of hearing myself insulted by the speaker opposed to me in the question under discussion, by

allusions to my private affairs; by cant about monsters without natural affection, family despots, and such

trash; and when I rose to answer, I was met by a shout from the filthy mob, where the mention of your name

enabled me at once to detect the quarter in which this base attack had originated. When I looked round, I saw

that treacherous villain, Hunsden acting as fugleman. I detected you in close conversation with Hunsden at

my house a month ago, and I know that you were at Hunsden's rooms last night. Deny it if you dare."

"Oh, I shall not deny it! And if Hunsden hounded on the people to hiss you, he did quite right. You deserve

popular execration; for a worse man, a harder master, a more brutal brother than you are has seldom existed."

"Sirrah! sirrah!" reiterated Crimsworth; and to complete his apostrophe, he cracked the whip straight over my

A minute sufficed to wrest it from him, break it in two pieces, and throw it under the grate. He made a

Men like Crimsworth, if firmly and calmly resisted, always abate something of their exorbitant insolence; he

had no mind to be brought before a magistrate, and I suppose he saw I meant what I said. After an odd and

long stare at me, at once bulllike and amazed, he seemed to bethink himself that, after all, his money gave

him sufficient superiority over a beggar like me, and that he had in his hands a surer and more dignified mode

"Take your hat," said he. "Take what belongs to you, and go out at that door; get away to your parish, you

pauper: beg, steal, starve, get transported, do what you like; but at your peril venture again into my sight! If

ever I hear of your setting foot on an inch of ground belonging to me, I'll hire a man to cane you."

"It is not likely you'll have the chance; once off your premises, what temptation can I have to return to them?

I leave a prison, I leave a tyrant; I leave what is worse than the worst that can lie before me, so no fear of my

I walked deliberately to my desk, took out such of its contents as were my own property, put them in my

"What are you abstracting from that desk?" demanded the millowner. "Leave all behind in its place, or I'll

"Look sharp about it, then," said I, and I took down my hat, drew on my gloves, and walked leisurely out of

I recollect that when the millbell rang the dinner hour, before Mr. Crimsworth entered, and the scene above

related took place, I had had rather a sharp appetite, and had been waiting somewhat impatiently to hear the

signal of feeding time. I forgot it now, however; the images of potatoes and roast mutton were effaced from

my mind by the stir and tumult which the transaction of the last halfhour had there excited. I only thought of

walking, that the action of my muscles might harmonize with the action of my nerves; and walk I did, fast

and far. How could I do otherwise? A load was lifted off my heart; I felt light and liberated. I had got away

from Bigben Close without a breach of resolution; without injury to my selfrespect. I had not forced

circumstances; circumstances had freed me. Life was again open to me; no longer was its horizon limited by

the high black wall surrounding Crimsworth's mill. Two hours had elapsed before my sensations had so far

subsided as to leave me calm enough to remark for what wider and clearer boundaries I had exchanged that

sooty girdle. When I did look up, lo! straight before me lay Grovetown, a village of villas about five miles

out of X. The short winter day, as I perceived from the fardeclined sun, was already approaching its

close; a chill frostmist was rising from the river on which X stands, and along whose banks the road I

had taken lay; it dimmed the earth, but did not obscure the clear icy blue of the January sky. There was a

great stillness near and far; the time of the day favoured tranquillity, as the people were all employed

withindoors, the hour of evening release from the factories not being yet arrived; a sound of fullflowing

water alone pervaded the air, for the river was deep and abundant, swelled by the melting of a late snow. I

stood awhile, leaning over a wall; and looking down at the current: I watched the rapid rush of its waves. I

desired memory to take a clear and permanent impression of the scene, and treasure it for future years.

Grovetown church clock struck four; looking up, I beheld the last of that day's sun, glinting red through the

leafless boughs of some very old oak trees surrounding the churchits light coloured and characterized the

picture as I wished. I paused yet a moment, till the sweet, slow sound of the bell had quite died out of the air;

then ear, eye and feeling satisfied, I quitted the wall and once more turned my face towards X.

I REENTERED the town a hungry man; the dinner I had forgotten recurred seductively to my recollection;

and it was with a quick step and sharp appetite I ascended the narrow street leading to my lodgings. It was

dark when I opened the front door and walked into the house. I wondered how my fire would be; the night

was cold, and I shuddered at the prospect of a grate full of sparkless cinders. To my joyful surprise, I found,

on entering my sittingroom, a good fire and a clean hearth. I had hardly noticed this phenomenon, when I

became aware of another subject for wonderment; the chair I usually occupied near the hearth was already

filled; a person sat there with his. arms folded on his chest, and his legs stretched out on the rug.

Shortsighted as I am, doubtful as was the gleam of the firelight, a moment's examination enabled me to

recognize in this person my acquaintance, Mr. Hunsden. I could not of course be much pleased to see him,

considering the manner in which I had parted from him the night before, and as I walked to the hearth, stirred

the fire, and said coolly, "Good evening," my demeanour evinced as little cordiality as I felt; yet I wondered

in my own mind what had brought him there; and I wondered, also, what motives had induced him to

interfere so actively between me and Edward; it was to him, it appeared, that I owed my welcome dismissal;

still I could not bring myself to ask him questions, to show any eagerness of curiosity; if he chose to explain,

he might, but the explanation should be a perfectly voluntary one on his part; I thought he was entering upon

"Do I?" said I; "I hope it is not a large one, for I am much too poor to charge myself with heavy liabilities of

"Then declare yourself bankrupt at once, for this liability is a ton weight at least. When I came in I found

your fire out, and I had it lit again, and made that sulky drab of a servant stay and blow at it with the bellows

"Not till I have had something to eat; I can thank nobody while I am so famished."

"Cold meat!" exclaimed Hunsden, as the servant closed the door, "what a glutton you are; man! Meat with

"No, Mr. Hunsden, I shall not." I felt a necessity for contradicting him; I was irritated with hunger, and

irritated at seeing him there, and irritated at the continued roughness of his manner.

"How do you know?" I demanded. "It is like you to give a pragmatical opinion without being acquainted with

What I said was petulant and snappish enough, and Hunsden only replied by looking in my face and

"Poor thing!" he whined, after a pause. "It has had no dinner, has it? What! I suppose its master would not let

"No, Mr. Hunsden. Fortunately at this sulky juncture, tea, was brought in, and I fell to upon some bread and

butter and cold beef directly. Having cleared a plateful, I became so far humanized as to intimate to Mr.

Hunsden "that he need not sit there staring, but might come to the table and do as I did, if he liked."

"But I don't like in the least," said he, and therewith he summoned the servant by a fresh pull of the bellrope,

and intimated a desire to have a glass of toastandwater. "And some more coal," he added; "Mr.

His orders being executed, he wheeled his chair round to the table, so as to be opposite me.

"Yes," said I; and not disposed to show the satisfaction I felt on this point, I, yielding to the whim of the

moment, took up the subject as though I considered myself aggrieved rather than benefited by what had been

done. "Yesthanks to you, I am. Crimsworth turned me off at a minute's notice, owing to some interference

"Ah! what! he mentioned that? He observed me signalling the lads, did he? What had he to say about his

"Oh, he hardly knows me yet! I'm one of those shy people who don't come out all at once, and he is only just

beginning to make my acquaintance, but he'll find I've some good qualities excellent ones! The Hunsdens

were always unrivalled at tracking a rascal; a downright, dishonourable villain is their natural preythey

could not keep off him wherever they met him; you used the word pragmatical just nowthat word is the

property of our family; it has been applied to us from generation to generation; we have fine noses for abuses;

we scent a scoundrel a mile off; we are reformers born, radical reformers; and it was impossible for me to live

in the same town with Crimsworth, to come into weekly contact with him, to witness some of his conduct to

you (for whom personally I care nothing; I only consider the brutal injustice with which he violated your

natural claim to equality)I say it was impossible for me to be thus situated and not feel the angel or the

demon of my race at work within me. I followed my instinct, opposed a tyrant, and broke a chain."

Now this speech interested me much, both because it brought out Hunsden's character, and because it

explained his motives; it interested me so much that I forgot to reply to it, and sat silent, pondering over a

In fact I was grateful, or almost so, and I believe I half liked him at the moment, notwithstanding his proviso

that what he had done was not out of regard for me. But human nature is perverse. Impossible to answer his

blunt question in the affirmative, so I disclaimed all tendency to gratitude, and advised him if he expected any

reward for his championship, to look for it in a better world, as he was not likely to meet with it here. In reply

he termed me "a dryhearted aristocratic scamp," whereupon I again charged him with having taken the

"Your bread was dirty, man!" cried Hunsden"dirty and unwholesome! It came through the hands of a

tyrant, for I tell you Crimsworth is a tyrant,a tyrant to his workpeople, a tyrant to his clerks, and will some

"Nonsense! bread is bread, and a salary is a salary. I've lost mine, and through your means."

"There's sense in what you say, after all," rejoined Hunsden. "I must say I am rather agreeably surprised to

hear you make so practical an observation as that last. I had imagined now, from my previous observation of

your character, that the sentimental delight you would have taken in your newly regained liberty would, for a

while at least, have effaced all ideas of forethought and prudence. I think better of you for looking steadily to

"Looking steadily to the needful! How can I do otherwise? I must live, and to live I must have what you call

'the needful,' which I can only get by working. I repeat it, you have taken my work from me."

"What do you mean to do?" pursued Hunsden coolly. "You have influential relations; I suppose they'll soon

"As you please. They offered me their patronage on condition of my entering the Church; I declined both the

terms and the recompence; I withdrew from my cold uncles, and preferred throwing myself into my elder

brother's arms, from whose affectionate embrace I am now torn by the cruel intermeddling of a strangerof

I could not repress a halfsmile as I said this; a similar demimanifestation of feeling appeared at the same

"Oh, I see!" said he, looking into my eyes, and it was evident he did see right down into my heart. Having sat

a minute or two with his chin resting on his hand, diligently occupied in the continued perusal of my

"Yes, rejection and repulsion. Why do you ask me twice? How can hands stained with the ink of a

countinghouse, soiled with the grease of a woolwarehouse, ever again be permitted to come into contact

"There would be a difficulty, no doubt; still you are such a complete Seacombe in appearance, feature,

"That merely proves that you know nothing at all about it; I am my mother's son, but not my uncles' nephew."

"Stillone of your uncles is a lord, though rather an obscure and not a very wealthy one, and the other a

"Nonsense, Mr. Hunsden. You know or may know that even had I desired to be submissive to my uncles, I

could not have stooped with a good enough grace ever to have won their favour. I should have sacrificed my

"Very likelyso you calculated your wisest plan was to follow your own devices at once?"

"Exactly. I must follow my own devicesI must, till the day of my death; because I can neither comprehend,

Hunsden yawned. "Well," said he, "in all this, I see but one thing clearlythat is, that the whole affair is no

business of mine. "He stretched himself and again yawned. "I wonder what time it is," he went on: "I have an

"Well, then I'll go." He got up. "You'll not meddle with trade again?" said he, leaning his elbow on the

"You would be a fool if you did. Probably, after all, you'll think better of your uncles' proposal and go into

"A singular regeneration must take place in my whole inner and outer man before I do that. A good

"I do, and no mistake. But I have not the peculiar points which go to make a good clergyman; and rather than

adopt a profession for which I have no vocation, I would endure extremities of hardship from poverty."

"You're a mighty difficult customer to suit. You won't be a tradesman or a parson; you can't be a lawyer, or a

"You must travel in search of money, man. You can speak French with a vile English accent, no

doubtstill, you can speak it. Go on to the Continent, and see what will turn up for you there."

"Go: what the deuce hinders you? You may get to Brussels, for instance, for five or six pounds, if you know

"Go, then, and let your wits make a way for you when you get there. I know Brussels almost as well as I

"But occupation, Mr. Hunsden! I must go where occupation is to be had; and how could I get

"There speaks the organ of caution. You hate to advance a step before you know every inch of the way. You

"I hope so," and I produced writing materials with alacrity; for I guessed what he was going to do. He sat

down, wrote a few lines, folded, sealed, and addressed a letter, and held it out to me.

"There, Prudence, there's a pioneer to hew down the first rough difficulties of your path. I know well enough,

lad, you are not one of those who will run their neck into a noose without seeing how they are to get it out

again, and you're right there. A reckless man is my aversion, and nothing should ever persuade me to meddle

with the concerns of such a one. Those who are reckless for themselves are generally ten times more so for

"Yes. With that in your pocket you will run no risk of finding yourself in a state of absolute destitution,

which, I know, you will regard as a degradationso should I, for that matter. The person to whom you will

present it generally has two or three respectable places depending upon his recommendation."

"Well, and where's your gratitude?" demanded Mr. Hunsden; "don't you know how to say 'Thank you?'"

"I've fifteen pounds and a watch, which my godmother, whom I never saw, gave me eighteen years ago," was

my rather irrelevant answer; and I further avowed myself a happy man, and professed that I did not envy any

"I shall be off presently, Mr. Hunsdentomorrow, if all be well: I'll not stay a day longer in X than

"Very goodbut it will be decent to make due acknowledgment for the assistance you have received; be

"Just stand out of the way, will you, Mr. Hunsden: I want a key there is on the corner of the mantelpiece. I'll

"The lad is a heathen," said Hunsden, and taking his hat from a sideboard, he left the room, laughing to

himself. I had half an inclination to follow him: I really intended to leave X the next morning, and

should certainly not have another opportunity of bidding him goodbye. The front door banged to.

READER, perhaps you were never in Belgium? Haply you don't know the physiognomy of the country? You

Threenay fourpictures line the fourwalled cell where are stored for me the records of the past. First,

Eton. All in that picture is in far perspective, receding, diminutive; but freshly coloured, green, dewy, with a

spring sky, piled with glittering yet showery clouds; for my childhood was not all sunshineit had its

overcast, its cold, its stormy hours. Second, X, huge, dingy; the canvas cracked and smoked; a yellow

sky, sooty clouds; no sun, no azure; the verdure of the suburbs blighted and sullieda very dreary scene.

Third, Belgium; and I will pause before this landscape. As to the fourth, a curtain covers it, which I may

hereafter withdraw, or may not, as suits my convenience and capacity. At any rate, for the present it must

hang undisturbed. Belgium! name unromantic and unpoetic, yet name that whenever uttered has in my ear a

sound, in my heart an echo, such as no other assemblage of syllables, however sweet or classic, can produce.

Belgium! I repeat the word, now as I sit alone near midnight. It stirs my world of the past like a summons to

resurrection; the graves unclose, the dead are raised; thoughts, feelings, memories that slept, are seen by me

ascending from the clodshaloed most of thembut while I gaze on their vapoury forms, and strive to

ascertain definitely their outline, the sound which wakened them dies, and they sink, each and all, like a light

wreath of mist, absorbed in the mould, recalled to urns, resealed in monuments. Farewell, luminous

This is Belgium, reader. Look! don't call the picture a flat or a dull oneit was neither flat nor dull to me

when I first beheld it. When I left Ostend on a mild February morning, and found myself on the road to

Brussels, nothing could look vapid to me. My sense of enjoyment possessed an edge whetted to the finest,

untouched, keen, exquisite. I was young; I had good health; pleasure and I had never met; no indulgence of

hers had enervated or sated one faculty of my nature. Liberty I clasped in my arms for the first time, and the

influence of her smile and embrace revived my life like the sun and the west wind. Yes, at that epoch I felt

like a morning traveller who doubts not that from the hill he is ascending he shall behold a glorious sunrise;

what if the track be strait, steep, and stony? he sees it not; his eyes are fixed on that summit, flushed already,

flushed and gilded, and having gained it he is certain of the scene beyond. He knows that the sun will face

him, that his chariot is even now coming over the eastern horizon, and that the herald breeze he feels on his

cheek is opening for the god's career a clear, vast path of azure, amidst clouds soft as pearl and warm as

flame. Difficulty and toil were to be my lot, but sustained by energy, drawn on by hopes as bright as vague, I

deemed such a lot no hardship. I mounted now the hill in shade; there were pebbles, inequalities, briars in my

path, but my eyes were fixed on the crimson peak above; my imagination was with the refulgent firmament

beyond, and I thought nothing of the stones turning under my feet, or of the thorns scratching my face and

I gazed often, and always with delight, from the window of the diligence (these, be it remembered, were not

the days of trains and railroads). Well! and what did I see? I will tell you faithfully. Green, reedy swamps;

fields fertile but flat, cultivated in patches that made them look like magnified kitchengardens; belts of cut

trees, formal as pollard willows, skirting the horizon; narrow canals, gliding slow by the roadside; painted

Flemish farmhouses; some very dirty hovels; a gray, dead sky; wet road, wet fields, wet housetops: not a

beautiful, scarcely a picturesque object met my eye along the whole route; yet to me, all was beautiful, all

was more than picturesque. It continued fair so long as daylight lasted, though the moisture of many

preceding damp days had sodden the whole country; as it grew dark, however, the rain recommenced, and it

was through streaming and starless darkness my eye caught the first gleam of the lights of Brussels. I saw

little of the city but its lights that night. Having alighted from the diligence, a fiacre conveyed me to the Hotel

de , where I had been advised by a fellowtraveller to put up; having eaten a traveller's supper, I retired

Next morning I awoke from prolonged and sound repose with the impression that I was yet in X, and

perceiving it to be broad daylight I started up, imagining that I had overslept myself and should be behind

time at the countinghouse. The momentary and painful sense of restraint vanished before the revived and

reviving consciousness of freedom, as, throwing back the white curtains of my bed, I looked forth into a

wide, lofty foreign chamber; how different from the small and dingy, though not uncomfortable, apartment I

had occupied for a night or two at a respectable inn in London while waiting for the sailing of the packet! Yet

far be it from me to profane the memory of that little dingy room! It, too, is dear to my soul; for there, as I lay

in quiet and darkness, I first heard the great bell of St. Paul's telling London it was midnight, and well do I

recall the deep, deliberate tones, so full charged with colossal phlegm and force. From the small, narrow

window of that room, I first saw THE dome, looming through a London mist. I suppose the sensations, stirred

by those first sounds, first sights, are felt but once; treasure them, Memory; seal them in urns, and keep them

in safe niches! WellI rose. Travellers talk of the apartments in foreign dwellings being bare and

uncomfortable; I thought my chamber looked stately and cheerful. It had such large windows CROISEES

that opened like doors, with such broad, clear panes of glass; such a great lookingglass stood on my

dressingtable such a fine mirror glittered over the mantelpiecethe painted floor looked so clean and

glossy; when I had dressed and was descending the stairs, the broad marble steps almost awed me, and so did

the lofty hall into which they conducted. On the first landing I met a Flemish housemaid: she had wooden

shoes, a short red petticoat, a printed cotton bedgown, her face was broad, her physiognomy eminently

stupid; when I spoke to her in French, she answered me in Flemish, with an air the reverse of civil; yet I

thought her charming; if she was not pretty or polite, she was, I conceived, very picturesque; she reminded

me of the female figures in certain Dutch paintings I had seen in other years at Seacombe Hall.

I repaired to the public room; that, too, was very large and very lofty, and warmed by a stove; the floor was

black, and the stove was black, and most of the furniture was black: yet I never experienced a freer sense of

exhilaration than when I sat down at a very long, black table (covered, however, in part by a white cloth),

and, having ordered breakfast, began to pour out my coffee from a little black coffeepot. The stove might be

dismallooking to some eyes, not to mine, but it was indisputably very warm, and there were two gentlemen

seated by it talking in French; impossible to follow their rapid utterance, or comprehend much of the purport

of what they saidyet French, in the mouths of Frenchmen, or Belgians (I was not then sensible of the

horrors of the Belgian accent) was as music to my ears. One of these gentlemen presently discerned me to be

an Englishmanno doubt from the fashion in which I addressed the waiter; for I would persist in speaking

French in my execrable SouthofEngland style, though the man understood English. The gentleman, after

looking towards me once or twice, politely accosted me in very good English; I remember I wished to God

that I could speak French as well; his fluency and correct pronunciation impressed me for the first time with a

due notion of the cosmopolitan character of the capital I was in; it was my first experience of that skill in

I lingered over my breakfast as long as I could; while it was there on the table, and while that stranger

continued talking to me, I was a free, independent traveller; but at last the things were removed, the two

gentlemen left the room; suddenly the illusion ceased, reality and business came back. I, a bondsman just

released from the yoke, freed for one week from twentyone years of constraint, must, of necessity, resume

the fetters of dependency. Hardly had I tasted the delight of being without a master when duty issued her

stern mandate: "Go forth and seek another service." I never linger over a painful and necessary task; I never

take pleasure before business, it is not in my nature to do so; impossible to enjoy a leisurely walk over the

city, though I perceived the morning was very fine, until I had first presented Mr. Hunsden's letter of

introduction, and got fairly on to the track of a new situation. Wrenching my mind from liberty and delight, I

seized my hat, and forced my reluctant body out of the Hotel de into the foreign street.

It was a fine day, but I would not look at the blue sky or at the stately houses round me; my mind was bent on

one thing, finding out "Mr. Brown, Numero , Rue Royale," for so my letter was addressed. By dint of

inquiry I succeeded; I stood at last at the desired door, knocked, asked for Mr. Brown, and was admitted.

Being shown into a small breakfastroom, I found myself in the presence of an elderly gentlemanvery

grave, businesslike, and respectablelooking. I presented Mr. Hunsden's letter; he received me very civilly.

After a little desultory conversation he asked me if there was anything in which his advice or experience

could be of use. I said, " Yes," and then proceeded to tell him that I was not a gentleman of fortune, travelling

for pleasure, but an excountinghouse clerk, who wanted employment of some kind, and that immediately

too. He replied that as a friend of Mr. Hunsden's he would be willing to assist me as well as he could. After

some meditation he named a place in a mercantile house at Liege, and another in a bookseller's shop at

"Clerk and shopman!" murmured I to myself. "No." I shook my head. I had tried the high stool; I hated it; I

believed there were other occupations that would suit me better; besides I did not wish to leave Brussels.

"I know of no place in Brussels," answered Mr. Brown, "unless indeed you were disposed to turn your

attention to teaching. I am acquainted with the director of a large establishment who is in want of a professor

"But," asked he, "do you understand French well enough to teach Belgian boys English?"

Fortunately I could answer this question in the affirmative; having studied French under a Frenchman, I could

speak the language intelligibly though not fluently. I could also read it well, and write it decently.

"Then," pursued Mr. Brown, "I think I can promise you the place, for Monsieur Pelet will not refuse a

professor recommended by me; but come here again at five o'clock this afternoon, and I will introduce you to

"Oh," returned Mr. Brown, "professor, here in Belgium, means a teacher, that is all."

My conscience thus quieted, I thanked Mr. Brown, and, for the present, withdrew. This time I stepped out

into the street with a relieved heart; the task I had imposed on myself for that day was executed. I might now

take some hours of holiday. I felt free to look up. For the first time I remarked the sparkling clearness of the

air, the deep blue of the sky, the gay clean aspect of the whitewashed or painted houses; I saw what a fine

street was the Rue Royale, and, walking leisurely along its broad pavement, I continued to survey its stately

hotels, till the palisades, the gates, and trees of the park appearing in sight, offered to my eye a new attraction.

I remember, before entering the park, I stood awhile to contemplate the statue of General Belliard, and then I

advanced to the top of the great staircase just beyond, and I looked down into a narrow back street, which I

afterwards learnt was called the Rue d'Isabelle. I well recollect that my eye rested on the green door of a

rather large house opposite, where, on a brass plate, was inscribed, "Pensionnat de Demoiselles." Pensionnat!

The word excited an uneasy sensation in my mind; it seemed to speak of restraint. Some of the demoiselles,

externats no doubt, were at that moment issuing from the doorI looked for a pretty face amongst them, but

their close, little French bonnets hid their features; in a moment they were gone.

I had traversed a good deal of Brussels before five o'clock arrived, but punctually as that hour struck I was

again in the Rue Royale. Readmitted to Mr. Brown's breakfastroom, I found him, as before, seated at the

table, and he was not alonea gentleman stood by the hearth. Two words of introduction designated him as

my future master. "M. Pelet, Mr. Crimsworth; Mr. Crimsworth, M. Pelet" a bow on each side finished the

ceremony. I don't know what sort of a bow I made; an ordinary one, I suppose, for I was in a tranquil,

commonplace frame of mind; I felt none of the agitation which had troubled my first interview with Edward

Crimsworth. M. Pelet's bow was extremely polite, yet not theatrical, scarcely French; he and I were presently

seated opposite to each other. In a pleasing voice, low, and, out of consideration to my foreign ears, very

distinct and deliberate, M. Pelet intimated that he had just been receiving from "le respectable M. Brown," an

account of my attainments and character, which relieved him from all scruple as to the propriety of engaging

me as professor of English and Latin in his establishment; nevertheless, for form's sake, he would put a few

questions to test; my powers. He did, and expressed in flattering terms his satisfaction at my answers. The

subject of salary next came on; it was fixed at one thousand francs per annum, besides board and lodging.

"And in addition," suggested M. Pelet, "as there will be some hours in each day during which your services

will not be required in my establishment, you may, in time, obtain employment in other seminaries, and thus

I thought this very kind, and indeed I found afterwards that the terms on which M. Pelet had engaged me

were really liberal for Brussels; instruction being extremely cheap there on account of the number of teachers.

It was further arranged that I should be installed in my new post the very next day, after which M. Pelet and I

Well, and what was he like? and what were my impressions concerning him? He was a man of about forty

years of age, of middle size, and rather emaciated figure; his face was pale, his cheeks were sunk, and his

eyes hollow; his features were pleasing and regular, they had a French turn (for M. Pelet was no Fleming, but

a Frenchman both by birth and parentage), yet the degree of harshness inseparable from Gallic lineaments

was, in his case, softened by a mild blue eye, and a melancholy, almost suffering, expression of countenance;

his physiognomy was "fine et spirituelle." I use two French words because they define better than any

English terms the species of intelligence with which his features were imbued. He was altogether an

interesting and prepossessing personage. I wondered only at the utter absence of all the ordinary

characteristics of his profession, and almost feared he could not be stern and resolute enough for a

schoolmaster. Externally at least M. Pelet presented an absolute contrast to my late master, Edward

Influenced by the impression I had received of his gentleness, I was a good deal surprised when, on arriving

the next day at my new employer's house, and being admitted to a first view of what was to be the sphere of

my future labours, namely the large, lofty, and well lighted schoolrooms, I beheld a numerous assemblage of

pupils, boys of course, whose collective appearance showed all the signs of a full, flourishing, and

welldisciplined seminary. As I traversed the classes in company with M. Pelet, a profound silence reigned

on all sides, and if by chance a murmur or a whisper arose, one glance from the pensive eye of this most

gentle pedagogue stilled it instantly. It was astonishing, I thought, how so mild a check could prove so

effectual. When I had perambulated the length and breadth of the classes, M. Pelet turned and said to me

"Would you object to taking the boys as they are, and testing their proficiency in English?"

The proposal was unexpected. I had thought I should have been allowed at least 3 days to prepare; but it is a

bad omen to commence any career by hesitation, so I just stepped to the professor's desk near which we

stood, and faced the circle of my pupils. I took a moment to collect my thoughts, and likewise to frame in

French the sentence by which I proposed to open business. I made it as short as possible:

"Anglais ou Francais, monsieur?" demanded a thickset, moonfaced young Flamand in a blouse. The answer

I determined to give myself as little trouble as possible in this lesson; it would not do yet to trust my

unpractised tongue with the delivery of explanations; my accent and idiom would be too open to the

criticisms of the young gentlemen before me, relative to whom I felt already it would be necessary at once to

"Commencez!" cried I, when they had all produced their books. The moonfaced youth (by name Jules

Vanderkelkov, as I afterwards learnt) took the first sentence. The "livre de lecture" was the "Vicar of

Wakefield," much used in foreign schools because it is supposed to contain prime samples of conversational

English; it might, however, have been a Runic scroll for any resemblance the words, as enunciated by Jules,

bore to the language in ordinary use amongst the natives of Great Britain. My God! how he did snuffle, snort,

and wheeze! All he said was said in his throat and nose, for it is thus the Flamands speak, but I heard him to

the end of his paragraph without proffering a word of correction, whereat he looked vastly selfcomplacent,

convinced, no doubt, that he had acquitted himself like a real born and bred "Anglais." In the same unmoved

silence I listened to a dozen in rotation, and when the twelfth had concluded with splutter, hiss, and mumble,

"Arretez!" said I. There was a pause, during which I regarded them all with a steady and somewhat stern

gaze; a dog, if stared at hard enough and long enough, will show symptoms of embarrassment, and so at

length did my bench of Belgians. Perceiving that some of the faces before me were beginning to look sullen,

and others ashamed, I slowly joined my hands, and ejaculated in a deep "voix de poitrine"

They looked at each other, pouted, coloured, swung their heels; they were not pleased, I saw, but they were

impressed, and in the way I wished them to be. Having thus taken them down a peg in their selfconceit, the

next step was to raise myself in their estimation; not a very easy thing, considering that I hardly dared to

"Ecoutez, messieurs!" said I, and I endeavoured to throw into my accents the compassionate tone of a

superior being, who, touched by the extremity of the helplessness, which at first only excited his scorn,

deigns at length to bestow aid. I then began at the very beginning of the "Vicar of Wakefield," and read, in a

slow, distinct voice, some twenty pages, they all the while sitting mute and listening with fixed attention; by

"C'est assez pour aujourd'hui, messieurs; demain nous recommencerons, et j'espere que tout ira bien."

With this oracular sentence I bowed, and in company with M. Pelet quitted the schoolroom.

"C'est bien! c'est tres bien!" said my principal as we entered his parlour. "Je vois que monsieur a de l'adresse;

cela, me plait, car, dans l'instruction, l'adresse fait tout autant que le savoir."

>From the parlour M. Pelet conducted me to my apartment, my "chambre," as Monsieur said with a certain

air of complacency. It was a very small room, with an excessively small bed, but M. Pelet gave me to

understand that I was to occupy it quite alone, which was of course a great comfort. Yet, though so limited in

dimensions, it had two windows. Light not being taxed in Belgium, the people never grudge its admission

into their houses; just here, however, this observation is not very APROPOS, for one of these windows was

boarded up; the open windows looked into the boys' playground. I glanced at the other, as wondering what

aspect it would present if disencumbered of the boards. M. Pelet read, I suppose, the expression of my eye; he

"La fenetre fermee donne sur un jardin appartenant a un pensionnat de demoiselles," said he, "et les

"Oui, oui," was my reply, and I looked of course quite satisfied; but when M. Pelet had retired and closed the

door after him, the first thing I did was to scrutinize closely the nailed boards, hoping to find some chink or

crevice which I might enlarge, and so get a peep at the consecrated ground. My researches were vain, for the

boards were well joined and strongly nailed. It is astonishing how disappointed I felt. I thought it would have

been so pleasant to have looked out upon a garden planted with flowers and trees, so amusing to have

watched the demoiselles at their play; to have studied female character in a variety of phases, myself the

while sheltered from view by a modest muslin curtain, whereas, owing doubtless to the absurd scruples of

some old duenna of a directress, I had now only the option of looking at a bare gravelled court, with an

enormous "pas de geant" in the middle, and the monotonous walls and windows of a boys' schoolhouse

round. Not only then, but many a time after, especially in moments of weariness and low spirits, did I look

with dissatisfied eyes on that most tantalizing board, longing to tear it away and get a glimpse of the green

region which I imagined to lie beyond. I knew a tree grew close up to the window, for though there were as

yet no leaves to rustle, I often heard at night the tapping of branches against the panes. In the daytime, when I

listened attentively, I could hear, even through the boards, the voices of the demoiselles in their hours of

recreation, and, to speak the honest truth, my sentimental reflections were occasionally a trifle disarranged by

the not quite silvery, in fact the too often brazen sounds, which, rising from the unseen paradise below,

penetrated clamorously into my solitude. Not to mince matters, it really seemed to me a doubtful case

whether the lungs of Mdlle. Reuter's girls or those of M. Pelet's boys were the strongest, and when it came to

shrieking the girls indisputably beat the boys hollow. I forgot to say, bytheby, that Reuter was the name of

the old lady who had had my window bearded up. I say old, for such I, of course, concluded her to be,

judging from her cautious, chaperonlike proceedings; besides, nobody ever spoke of her as young. I

remember I was very much amused when I first heard her Christian name; it was ZoraideMademoiselle

Zoraide Reuter. But the continental nations do allow themselves vagaries in the choice of names, such as we

sober English never run into. I think, indeed, we have too limited a list to choose from.

Meantime my path was gradually growing smooth before me. I, in a few weeks, conquered the teasing

difficulties inseparable from the commencement of almost every career. Ere long I had acquired as much

facility in speaking French as set me at my ease with my pupils; and as I had encountered them on a right

footing at the very beginning, and continued tenaciously to retain the advantage I had early gained, they never

attempted mutiny, which circumstance, all who are in any degree acquainted with the ongoings of Belgian

schools, and who know the relation in which professors and pupils too frequently stand towards each other in

those establishments, will consider an important and uncommon one. Before concluding this chapter I will

say a word on the system I pursued with regard to my classes: my experience may possibly be of use to

It did not require very keen observation to detect the character of the youth of Brabant, but it needed a certain

degree of tact to adopt one's measures to their capacity. Their intellectual faculties were generally weak, their

animal propensities strong; thus there was at once an impotence and a kind of inert force in their natures; they

were dull, but they were also singularly stubborn, heavy as lead and, like lead, most difficult to move. Such

being the case, it would have been truly absurd to exact from them much in the way of mental exertion;

having short memories, dense intelligence, feeble reflective powers, they recoiled with repugnance from any

occupation that demanded close study or deep thought. Had the abhorred effort been extorted from them by

injudicious and arbitrary measures on the part of the Professor, they would have resisted as obstinately, as

clamorously, as desperate swine; and though not brave singly, they were relentless acting EN MASSE.

I understood that before my arrival in M. Pelet's establishment, the combined insubordination of the pupils

had effected the dismissal of more than one English master. It was necessary then to exact only the most

moderate application from natures so little qualified to applyto assist, in every practicable way,

understandings so opaque and contractedto be ever gentle, considerate, yielding even, to a certain point,

with dispositions so irrationally perverse; but, having reached that culminating point of indulgence, you must

fix your foot, plant it, root it in rockbecome immutable as the towers of Ste. Gudule; for a step but half

a step farther, and you would plunge headlong into the gulf of imbecility; there lodged, you would speedily

receive proofs of Flemish gratitude and magnanimity in showers of Brabant saliva and handfuls of Low

Country mud. You might smooth to the utmost the path of learning, remove every pebble from the track; but

then you must finally insist with decision on the pupil taking your arm and allowing himself to be led quietly

along the prepared road. When I had brought down my lesson to the lowest level of my dullest pupil's

capacitywhen I had shown myself the mildest, the most tolerant of mastersa word of impertinence, a

movement of disobedience, changed me at once into a despot. I offered then but one alternativesubmission

and acknowledgment of error, or ignominious expulsion. This system answered, and my influence, by

degrees, became established on a firm basis. "The boy is father to the man," it is said; and so I often thought

when looked at my boys and remembered the political history of their ancestors. Pelet's school was merely an

AND Pelet himself? How did I continue to like him? Oh, extremely well! Nothing could be more smooth,

gentlemanlike, and even friendly, than his demeanour to me. I had to endure from him neither cold neglect,

irritating interference, nor pretentious assumption of superiority. I fear, however, two poor, hardworked

Belgian ushers in the establishment could not have said as much; to them the director's manner was

invariably dry, stern, and cool. I believe he perceived once or twice that I was a little shocked at the

difference he made between them and me, and accounted for it by saying, with a quiet sarcastic smile

And then he took his cigar gently from his lips and spat on the painted floor of the room in which we were

sitting. Flamands certainly they were, and both had the true Flamand physiognomy, where intellectual

inferiority is marked in lines none can mistake; still they were men, and, in the main, honest men; and I could

not see why their being aboriginals of the flat, dull soil should serve as a pretext for treating them with

perpetual severity and contempt. This idea, of injustice somewhat poisoned the pleasure I might otherwise

have derived from Pelet's soft affable manner to myself. Certainly it was agreeable, when the day's work was

over, to find one's employer an intelligent and cheerful companion; and if he was sometimes a little sarcastic

and sometimes a little too insinuating, and if I did discover that his mildness was more a matter of appearance

than of realityif I did occasionally suspect the existence of flint or steel under an external covering of

velvetstill we are none of us perfect; and weary as I was of the atmosphere of brutality and insolence in

which I had constantly lived at X, I had no inclination now, on casting anchor in calmer regions, to

institute at once a prying search after defects that were scrupulously withdrawn and carefully veiled from my

view. I was willing to take Pelet for what he seemedto believe him benevolent and friendly until some

untoward event should prove him otherwise. He was not married, and I soon perceived he had all a

Frenchman's, all a Parisian's notions about matrimony and women. I suspected a degree of laxity in his code

of morals, there was something so cold and BLASE in his tone whenever he alluded to what he called "le

beau sexe;" but he was too gentlemanlike to intrude topics I did not invite, and as he was really intelligent

and really fond of intellectual subjects of discourse, he and I always found enough to talk about, without

seeking themes in the mire. I hated his fashion of mentioning love; I abhorred, from my soul, mere

licentiousness. He felt the difference of our notions, and, by mutual consent, we kept off ground debateable.

Pelet's house was kept and his kitchen managed by his mother, a real old Frenchwoman; she had been

handsomeat least she told me so, and I strove to believe her; she was now ugly, as only continental old

women can be; perhaps, though, her style of dress made her look uglier than she really was. Indoors she

would go about without cap, her grey hair strangely dishevelled; then, when at home, she seldom wore a

gownonly a shabby cotton camisole; shoes, too, were strangers to her feet, and in lieu of them she sported

roomy slippers, trodden down at the heels. On the other hand, whenever it was her pleasure to appear abroad,

as on Sundays and fetedays, she would put on some very brilliantcoloured dress, usually of thin texture, a

silk bonnet with a wreath of flowers, and a very fine shawl. She was not, in the main, an illnatured old

woman, but an incessant and most indiscreet talker; she kept chiefly in and about the kitchen, and seemed

rather to avoid her son's august presence; of him, indeed, she evidently stood in awe. When he reproved her,

his reproofs were bitter and unsparing; but he seldom gave himself that trouble.

Madame Pelet had her own society, her own circle of chosen visitors, whom, however, I seldom saw, as she

generally entertained them in what she called her "cabinet," a small den of a place adjoining the kitchen, and

descending into it by one or two steps. On these steps, bytheby, I have not unfrequently seen Madame

Pelet seated with a trencher on her knee, engaged in the threefold employment of eating her dinner, gossiping

with her favourite servant, the housemaid, and scolding her antagonist, the cook; she never dined, and seldom

indeed took any meal with her son; and as to showing her face at the boys' table, that was quite out of the

question. These details will sound very odd in English ears, but Belgium is not England, and its ways are not

Madame Pelet's habits of life, then, being taken into consideration, I was a good deal surprised when, one

Thursday evening (Thursday was always a halfholiday), as I was sitting all alone in my apartment,

correcting a huge pile of English and Latin exercises, a servant tapped at the door, and, on its being opened,

presented Madame Pelet's compliments, and she would be happy to see me to take my "gouter" (a meal which

"Plaitil?" said I, for I thought I must have misunderstood, the message and invitation were so unusual; the

same words were repeated. I accepted, of course, and as I descended the stairs, I wondered what whim had

entered the old lady's brain; her son was outgone to pass the evening at the Salle of the Grande Harmonie

or some other club of which he was a member. Just as I laid my hand on the handle of the diningroom door,

"Surely she's not going to make love to me," said I. "I've heard of old Frenchwomen doing odd things in that

line; and the gouter? They generally begin such affairs with eating and drinking, I believe."

There was a fearful dismay in this suggestion of my excited imagination, and if I had allowed myself time to

dwell upon it, I should no doubt have cut there and then, rushed back to my chamber, and bolted myself in;

but whenever a danger or a horror is veiled with uncertainty, the primary wish of the mind is to ascertain first

the naked truth, reserving the expedient of flight for the moment when its dread anticipation shall be realized.

I turned the doorhandle, and in an instant had crossed the fatal threshold, closed the door behind me, and

Gracious heavens! The first view of her seemed to confirm my worst apprehensions. There she sat, dressed

out in a light green muslin gown, on her head a lace cap with flourishing red roses in the frill; her table was

carefully spread; there were fruit, cakes, and coffee, with a bottle of somethingI did not know what.

Already the cold sweat started on my brow, already I glanced back over my shoulder at the closed door,

when, to my unspeakable relief, my eye, wandering mildly in the direction of the stove, rested upon a second

figure, seated in a large fauteuil beside it. This was a woman, too, and, moreover, an old woman, and as fat

and as rubicund as Madame Pelet was meagre and yellow; her attire was likewise very fine, and spring

flowers of different hues circled in a bright wreath the crown of her violetcoloured velvet bonnet.

I had only time to make these general observations when Madame Pelet, coming forward with what she

"Monsieur is indeed most obliging to quit his books, his studies, at the request of an insignificant person like

mewill Monsieur complete his kindness by allowing me to present him to my dear friend Madame Reuter,

"Ah!" thought I, "I knew she was old," and I bowed and took my seat. Madame Reuter placed herself at the

"How do you like Belgium, Monsieur?" asked she, in an accent of the broadest Bruxellois. I could now well

distinguish the difference between the fine and pure Parisian utterance of M. Pelet, for instance, and the

guttural enunciation of the Flamands. I answered politely, and then wondered how so coarse and clumsy an

old woman as the one before me should be at the head of a ladies' seminary, which I had always heard spoken

of in terms of high commendation. In truth there was something to wonder at. Madame Reuter looked more

like a joyous, freeliving old Flemish fermiere, or even a maitresse d'auberge, than a staid, grave, rigid

directrice de pensionnat. In general the continental, or at least the Belgian old women permit themselves a

licence of manners, speech, and aspect, such as our venerable granddames would recoil from as absolutely

disreputable, and Madame Reuter's jolly face bore evidence that she was no exception to the rule of her

country; there was a twinkle and leer in her left eye; her right she kept habitually half shut, which I thought

very odd indeed. After several vain attempts to comprehend the motives of these two droll old creatures for

inviting me to join them at their gouter, I at last fairly gave it up, and resigning myself to inevitable

mystification, I sat and looked first at one, then at the other, taking care meantime to do justice to the

confitures, cakes, and coffee, with which they amply supplied me. They, too, ate, and that with no delicate

appetite, and having demolished a large portion of the solids, they proposed a "petit verre." I declined. Not so

Mesdames Pelet and Reuter; each mixed herself what I thought rather a stiff tumbler of punch, and placing it

on a stand near the stove, they drew up their chairs to that convenience, and invited me to do the same. I

obeyed; and being seated fairly between them, I was thus addressed first by Madame Pelet, then by Madame

"We will now speak of business," said Madame Pelet, and she went on to make an elaborate speech, which,

being interpreted, was to the effect that she had asked for the pleasure of my company that evening in order to

give her friend Madame Reuter an opportunity of broaching an important proposal, which might turn out

"Pourvu que vous soyez sage," said Madame Reuter, "et a vrai dire, vous en avez bien l'air. Take one drop of

the punch" (or ponche, as she pronounced it); "it is an agreeable and wholesome beverage after a full meal."

"I feel," said she, after a solemn sip"I feel profoundly the importance of the commission with which my

dear daughter has entrusted me, for you are aware, Monsieur, that it is my daughter who directs the

"Ah! I thought it was yourself, madame." Though, indeed, at that moment I recollected that it was called

"I! Oh, no! I manage the house and look after the servants, as my friend Madame Pelet does for Monsieur her

"Madame is in the wrong to laugh," I observed; "if she does not give lessons, I am sure it is not because she

cannot;" and I whipped out a white pockethandkerchief and wafted it, with a French grace, past my nose,

"Quel charmant jeune homme!" murmured Madame Pelet in a low voice. Madame Reuter, being less

"You are a dangerous person, I fear," said she; "if you can forge compliments at that rate, Zoraide will

positively be afraid of you; but if you are good, I will keep your secret, and not tell her how well you can

flatter. Now, listen what sort of a proposal she makes to you. She has heard that you are an excellent

professor, and as she wishes to get the very beet masters for her school (car Zoraide fait tout comme une

reine, c'est une veritable maitressefemme), she has commissioned me to step over this afternoon, and sound

Madame Pelet as to the possibility of engaging you. Zoraide is a wary general; she never advances without

first examining well her ground I don't think she would be pleased if she knew I had already disclosed her

intentions to you; she did not order me to go so far, but I thought there would be no harm in letting you into

the secret, and Madame Pelet was of the same opinion. Take care, however, you don't betray either of us to

Zoraideto my daughter, I mean; she is so discreet and circumspect herself, she cannot understand that one

"All the world is so changed since our girlhood!" rejoined the other: "young people have such old heads now.

But to return, Monsieur. Madame Pelet will mention the subject of your giving lessons in my daughter's

establishment to her son, and he will speak to you; and then tomorrow, you will step over to our house, and

ask to see my daughter, and you will introduce the subject as if the first intimation of it had reached you from

M. Pelet himself, and be sure you never mention my name, for I would not displease Zoraide on any account.

"Bien! bien!" interrupted Ifor all this chatter and circumlocution began to bore me very much; "I will

consult M. Pelet, and the thing shall be settled as you desire. Good evening, mesdamesI am infinitely

"Prenez encore quelquechose, monsieur; une pomme cuite, des biscuits, encore une tasse de cafe?"

Having regained my own room, I set myself to turn over in my mind the incident of the evening. It seemed a

queer affair altogether, and queerly managed; the two old women had made quite a little intricate mess of it;

still I found that the uppermost feeling in my mind on the subject was one of satisfaction. In the first place it

would be a change to give lessons in another seminary, and then to teach young ladies would be an

occupation so interestingto be admitted at all into a ladies' boardingschool would be an incident so new in

my life. Besides, thought I, as I glanced at the boarded window, "I shall now at last see the mysterious

M. PELET could not of course object to the proposal made by Mdlle. Reuter; permission to accept such

additional employment, should it offer, having formed an article of the terms on which he had engaged me. It

was, therefore, arranged in the course of next day that I should be at liberty to give lessons in Mdlle. Reuter's

When evening came I prepared to step over in order to seek a conference with Mademoiselle herself on the

subject; I had not had time to pay the visit before, having been all day closely occupied in class. I remember

very well that before quitting my chamber, I held a brief debate with myself as to whether I should change

my ordinary attire for something smarter. At last I concluded it would be a waste of labour. "Doubtless,"

thought I, "she is some stiff old maid; for though the daughter of Madame Reuter, she may well number

upwards of forty winters; besides, if it were otherwise, if she be both young and pretty, I am not handsome,

and no dressing can make me so, therefore I'll go as I am." And off I started, cursorily glancing sideways as I

passed the toilettable, surmounted by a lookingglass: a thin irregular face I saw, with sunk, dark eyes under

a large, square forehead, complexion destitute of bloom or attraction; something young, but not youthful, no

I was soon at the entrance of the pensionnat, in a moment I had pulled the bell; in another moment the door

was opened, and within appeared a passage paved alternately with black and white marble; the walls were

painted in imitation of marble also; and at the far end opened a glass door, through which I saw shrubs and a

grassplat, looking pleasant in the sunshine of the mild spring eveningfor it was now the middle of April.

This, then, was my first glimpse of the garden; but I had not time to look long, the portress, after having

answered in the affirmative my question as to whether her mistress was at home, opened the foldingdoors of

a room to the left, and having ushered me in, closed them behind me. I found myself in a salon with a very

wellpainted, highly varnished floor; chairs and sofas covered with white draperies, a green porcelain stove,

walls hung with pictures in gilt frames, a gilt pendule and other ornaments on the mantelpiece, a large lustre

pendent from the centre of the ceiling, mirrors, consoles, muslin curtains, and a handsome centre table

completed the inventory of furniture. All looked extremely clean and glittering, but the general effect would

have been somewhat chilling had not a second large pair of foldingdoors, standing wide open, and

disclosing another and smaller salon, more snugly furnished, offered some relief to the eye. This room was

carpeted, and therein was a piano, a couch, a chiffonniereabove all, it contained a lofty window with a

crimson curtain, which, being undrawn, afforded another glimpse of the garden, through the large, clear

"Monsieur Creemsvort, n'est ce pas?" said a voice behind me; and, starting involuntarily, I turned. I had been

so taken up with the contemplation of the pretty little salon that I had not noticed the entrance of a person into

the larger room. It was, however, Mdlle. Reuter who now addressed me, and stood close beside me; and when

I had bowed with instantaneously recovered sangfroidfor I am not easily embarrassedI commenced the

conversation by remarking on the pleasant aspect of her little cabinet, and the advantage she had over M.

"Yes," she said, "she often thought so;" and added, "it is my garden, monsieur, which makes me retain this

house, otherwise I should probably have removed to larger and more commodious premises long since; but

you see I could not take my garden with me, and I should scarcely find one so large and pleasant anywhere

"But you have not seen it yet," said she, rising; "come to the window and take a better view." I followed her;

she opened the sash, and leaning out I saw in full the enclosed demesne which had hitherto been to me an

unknown region. It was a long, not very broad strip of cultured ground, with an alley bordered by enormous

old fruit trees down the middle; there was a sort of lawn, a parterre of rosetrees, some flowerborders, and,

on the far side, a thickly planted copse of lilacs, laburnums, and acacias. It looked pleasant, to mevery

pleasant, so long a time had elapsed since I had seen a garden of any sort. But it was not only on Mdlle.

Reuter's garden that my eyes dwelt; when I had taken a view of her welltrimmed beds and budding

shrubberies, I allowed my glance to come back to herself, nor did I hastily withdraw it.

I had thought to see a tall, meagre, yellow, conventual image in black, with a close white cap, bandaged

under the chin like a nun's headgear; whereas, there stood by me a little and roundly formed woman, who

might indeed be older than I, but was still young; she could not, I thought, be more than six or seven and

twenty; she was as fair as a fair Englishwoman; she had no cap; her hair was nutbrown, and she wore it in

curls; pretty her features were not, nor very soft, nor very regular, but neither were they in any degree plain,

and I already saw cause to deem them expressive. What was their predominant cast? Was it

sagacity?sense? Yes, I thought so; but I could scarcely as yet be sure. I discovered, however, that there was

a certain serenity of eye, and freshness of complexion, most pleasing to behold. The colour on her cheek was

like the bloom on a good apple, which is as sound at the core as it is red on the rind.

Mdlle. Reuter and I entered upon business. She said she was not absolutely certain of the wisdom of the step

she was about to take, because I was so young, and parents might possibly object to a professor like me for

their daughters: "But it is often well to act on one's own judgment," said she, "and to lead parents, rather than

be led by them. The fitness of a professor is not a matter of age; and, from what I have heard, and from what I

observe myself, I would much rather trust you than M. Ledru, the musicmaster, who is a married man of

I remarked that I hoped she would find me worthy of her good opinion; that if I knew myself, I was incapable

of betraying any confidence reposed in me. "Du reste," said she, "the surveillance will be strictly attended to."

And then she proceeded to discuss the subject of terms. She was very cautious, quite on her guard; she did

not absolutely bargain, but she warily sounded me to find out what my expectations might be; and when she

could not get me to name a sum, she reasoned and reasoned with a fluent yet quiet circumlocution of speech,

and at last nailed me down to five hundred francs per annumnot too much, but I agreed. Before the

negotiation was completed, it began to grow a little dusk. I did not hasten it, for I liked well enough to sit and

hear her talk; I was amused with the sort of business talent she displayed. Edward could not have shown

himself more practical, though he might have evinced more coarseness and urgency; and then she had so

many reasons, so many explanations; and, after all, she succeeded in proving herself quite disinterested and

even liberal. At last she concluded, she could say no more, because, as I acquiesced in all things, there was no

further ground for the exercise of her parts of speech. I was obliged to rise. I would rather have sat a little

longer; what had I to return to but my small empty room? And my eyes had a pleasure in looking at Mdlle.

Reuter, especially now, when the twilight softened her features a little, and, in the doubtful dusk, I could

fancy her forehead as open as it was really elevated, her mouth touched with turns of sweetness as well as

defined in lines of sense. When I rose to go, I held out my hand, on purpose, though I knew it was contrary to

"It is the privilege of my country, Mademoiselle," said I; "and, remember, I shall always claim it."

She laughed a little, quite goodnaturedly, and with the sort of tranquillity obvious in all she dida

tranquillity which soothed and suited me singularly, at least I thought so that evening. Brussels seemed a very

pleasant place to me when I got out again into the street, and it appeared as if some cheerful, eventful,

upwardtending career were even then opening to me, on that selfsame mild, still April night. So

NEXT day the morning hours seemed to pass very slowly at M. Pelet's; I wanted the afternoon to come that I

might go again to the neighbouring pensionnat and give my first lesson within its pleasant precincts; for

pleasant they appeared to me. At noon the hour of recreation arrived; at one o'clock we had lunch; this got on

the time, and at last St. Gudule's deep bell, tolling slowly two, marked the moment for which I had been

At the foot of the narrow backstairs that descended from my room, I met M. Pelet.

"Comme vous avez l'air rayonnant!" said he. "Je ne vous ai jamais vu aussi gai. Que s'estil donc passe?"

"Ah! je comprendsc'est celasoyez sage seulement. Vous etes bien jeunetrop jeune pour le role que

I laughed: a sentiment of exquisite pleasure played over my nerves at the thought that "vives impressions"

were likely to be created; it was the deadness, the sameness of life's daily ongoings that had hitherto been my

bane; my blouseclad "eleves" in the boys' seminary never stirred in me any "vives impressions" except it

might be occasionally some of anger. I broke from M. Pelet, and as I strode down the passage he followed me

Again I stood at the neighbouring door, and soon was readmitted into the cheerful passage with its clear

dovecolour imitation marble walls. I followed the portress, and descending a step, and making a turn, I

found myself in a sort of corridor; a sidedoor opened, Mdlle. Reuter's little figure, as graceful as it was

plump, appeared. I could now see her dress in full daylight; a neat, simple mousselinelaine gown fitted her

compact round shape to perfectiondelicate little collar and manchettes of lace, trim Parisian brodequins

showed her neck, wrists, and feet, to complete advantage; but how grave was her face as she came suddenly

upon me! Solicitude and business were in her eye on her forehead; she looked almost stern. Her "Bon jour,

monsieur," was quite polite, but so orderly, so commonplace, it spread directly a cool, damp towel over my

"vives impressions." The servant turned back when her mistress appeared, and I walked slowly along the

"Monsieur will give a lesson in the first class today," said she; "dictation or reading will perhaps be the best

thing to begin with, for those are the easiest forms of communicating instruction in a foreign language; and,

She was quite right, as I had found from experience; it only remained for me to acquiesce. We proceeded now

in silence. The corridor terminated in a hall, large, lofty, and square; a glass door on one side showed within a

long narrow refectory, with tables, an armoire, and two lamps; it was empty; large glass doors, in front,

opened on the playground and garden; a broad staircase ascended spirally on the opposite side; the remaining

wall showed a pair of great foldingdoors, now closed, and admitting: doubtless, to the classes.

Mdlle. Reuter turned her eye laterally on me, to ascertain, probably, whether I was collected enough to be

ushered into her sanctum sanctorum. I suppose she judged me to be in a tolerable state of selfgovernment,

for she opened the door, and I followed her through. A rustling sound of uprising greeted our entrance;

without looking to the right or left, I walked straight up the lane between two sets of benches and desks, and

took possession of the empty chair and isolated desk raised on an estrade, of one step high, so as to command

one division; the other division being under the surveillance of a maitresse similarly elevated. At the back of

the estrade, and attached to a moveable partition dividing this schoolroom from another beyond, was a large

tableau of wood painted black and varnished; a thick crayon of white chalk lay on my desk for the

convenience of elucidating any grammatical or verbal obscurity which might occur in my lessons by writing

it upon the tableau; a wet sponge appeared beside the chalk, to enable me to efface the marks when they had

I carefully and deliberately made these observations before allowing myself to take one glance at the benches

before me; having handled the crayon, looked back at the tableau, fingered the sponge in order to ascertain

that it was in a right state of moisture, I found myself cool enough to admit of looking calmly up and gazing

And first I observed that Mdlle. Reuter had already glided away, she was nowhere visible; a maitresse or

teacher, the one who occupied the corresponding estrade to my own, alone remained to keep guard over me;

she was a little in the shade, and, with my short sight, I could only see that she was of a thin bony figure and

rather tallowy complexion, and that her attitude, as she sat, partook equally of listlessness and affectation.

More obvious, more prominent, shone on by the full light of the large window, were the occupants of the

benches just before me, of whom some were girls of fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, some young women from

eighteen (as it appeared to me) up to twenty; the most modest attire, the simplest fashion of wearing the hair,

were apparent in all; and good features, ruddy, blooming complexions, large and brilliant eyes, forms full,

even to solidity, seemed to abound. I did not bear the first view like a stoic; I was dazzled, my eyes fell, and

Not so had I bid the boys at Pelet's take their readingbooks. A rustle followed, and an opening of desks;

behind the lifted lids which momentarily screened the heads bent down to search for exercisebooks, I heard

And now the lids sank and the heads reappeared; I had marked three, the whisperers, and I did not scruple to

take a very steady look at them as they emerged from their temporary eclipse. It is astonishing what ease and

courage their little phrases of flippancy had given me; the idea by which I had been awed was that the

youthful beings before me, with their dark nunlike robes and softly braided hair, were a kind of halfangels.

The light titter, the giddy whisper, had already in some measure relieved my mind of that fond and oppressive

The three I allude to were just in front, within half a yard of my estrade, and were among the most

womanlylooking present. Their names I knew afterwards, and may as well mention now; they were Eulalie,

Hortense, Caroline. Eulalie was tall, and very finely shaped: she was fair, and her features were those of a

Low Country Madonna; many a "figure de Vierge" have I seen in Dutch pictures exactly resembling hers;

there were no angles in her shape or in her face, all was curve and roundnessneither thought, sentiment,

nor passion disturbed by line or flush the equality of her pale, clear skin; her noble bust heaved with her

regular breathing, her eyes moved a littleby these evidences of life alone could I have distinguished her

from some large handsome figure moulded in wax. Hortense was of middle size and stout, her form was

ungraceful, her face striking, more alive and brilliant than Eulalie's, her hair was dark brown, her complexion

richly coloured; there were frolic and mischief in her eye: consistency and good sense she might possess, but

Caroline was little, though evidently full grown; ravenblack hair, very dark eyes, absolutely regular features,

with a colourless olive complexion, clear as to the face and sallow about the neck, formed in her that

assemblage of points whose union many persons regard as the perfection of beauty. How, with the tintless

pallor of her skin and the classic straightness of her lineaments, she managed to look sensual, I don't know. I

think her lips and eyes contrived the affair between them, and the result left no uncertainty on the beholder's

mind. She was sensual now, and in ten years' time she would be coarsepromise plain was written in her

If I looked at these girls with little scruple, they looked at me with still less. Eulalie raised her unmoved eye

to mine, and seemed to expect, passively but securely, an impromptu tribute to her majestic charms. Hortense

regarded me boldly, and giggled at the same time, while she said, with an air of impudent freedom

Caroline shook her loose ringlets of abundant but somewhat coarse hair over her rolling black eyes; parting

her lips, as full as those of a hotblooded Maroon, she showed her wellset teeth sparkling between them,

and treated me at the same time to a smile "de sa facon." Beautiful as Pauline Borghese, she looked at the

moment scarcely purer than Lucrece de Borgia. Caroline was of noble family. I heard her ladymother's

character afterwards, and then I ceased to wonder at the precocious accomplishments of the daughter. These

three, I at once saw, deemed themselves the queens of the school, and conceived that by their splendour they

threw all the rest into the shade. In less than five minutes they had thus revealed to me their characters, and in

less than five minutes I had buckled on a breastplate of steely indifference, and let down a visor of

"Take your pens and commence writing," said I, in as dry and trite a voice as if I had been addressing only

The dictee now commenced. My three belles interrupted me perpetually with little silly questions and

uncalledfor remarks, to some of which I made no answer, and to others replied very quietly and briefly.

Here a general murmur arose, and the teacher, opening her lips for the first time, ejaculated

No silence followedon the contrary, the three ladies in front began to talk more loudly.

Some of those behind laughed: a degree of confusion began to pervade the class; it was necessary to take

"Donnezmoi votre cahier," said I to Eulalie in an abrupt tone; and bending over, I took it before she had

"Et vous, mademoiselledonnezmoi le votre," continued I, more mildly, addressing a little pale, plain

looking girl who sat in the first row of the other division, and whom I had remarked as being at once the

ugliest and the most attentive in the room; she rose up, walked over to me, and delivered her book with a

grave, modest curtsey. I glanced over the two dictations; Eulalie's was slurred, blotted, and full of silly

mistakesSylvie's (such was the name of the ugly little girl) was clearly written, it contained no error

against sense, and but few faults of orthography. I coolly read aloud both exercises, marking the faultsthen

"C'est honteux!" said I, and I deliberately tore her dictation in four parts, and presented her with the

Sylvie looked calmly pleased, Eulalie swelled like an incensed turkey, but the mutiny was quelled: the

conceited coquetry and futile flirtation of the first bench were exchanged for a taciturn sullenness, much more

A bell clanging out in the yard announced the moment for the cessation of school labours. I heard our own

bell at the same time, and that of a certain public college immediately after. Order dissolved instantly; up

started every pupil, I hastened to seize my hat, bow to the maitresse, and quit the room before the tide of

externats should pour from the inner class, where I knew near a hundred were prisoned, and whose rising

I had scarcely crossed the hall and gained the corridor, when Mdlle. Reuter came again upon me.

"Step in here a moment," said she, and she held open the door of the side room from whence she had issued

on my arrival; it was a SALLEAMANGER, as appeared from the beaufet and the armoire vitree, filled

with glass and china, which formed part of its furniture. Ere she had closed the door on me and herself, the

corridor was already filled with daypupils, tearing down their cloaks, bonnets, and cabas from the wooden

pegs on which they were suspended; the shrill voice of a maitresse was heard at intervals vainly endeavouring

to enforce some sort of order; vainly, I say: discipline there was none in these rough ranks, and yet this was

"Well, you have given your first lesson," began Mdlle. Reuter in the most calm, equable voice, as though

quite unconscious of the chaos from which we were separated only by a single wall.

"Were you satisfied with your pupils, or did any circumstance in their conduct give you cause for complaint?

Happily, I felt in myself complete power to manage my pupils without aid; the enchantment, the golden haze

which had dazzled my perspicuity at first, had been a good deal dissipated. I cannot say I was chagrined or

downcast by the contrast which the reality of a pensionnat de demoiselles presented to my vague ideal of the

same community; I was only enlightened and amused; consequently, I felt in no disposition to complain to

Mdlle. Reuter, and I received her considerate invitation to confidence with a smile.

"Ah! tout va au mieux!" was my answer, and Mdlle. Reuter ceased to question me; but her eyenot large,

not brilliant, not melting, or kindling, but astute, penetrating, practical, showed she was even with me; it let

out a momentary gleam, which said plainly, "Be as close as you like, I am not dependent on your candour;

By a transition so quiet as to be scarcely perceptible, the directress's manner changed; the anxious

businessair passed from her face, and she began chatting about the weather and the town, and asking in

neighbourly wise after M. and Madame Pelet. I answered all her little questions; she prolonged her talk, I

went on following its many little windings; she sat so long, said so much, varied so often the topics of

discourse, that it was not difficult to perceive she had a particular aim in thus detaining me. Her mere words

could have afforded no clue to this aim, but her countenance aided; while her lips uttered only affable

commonplaces, her eyes reverted continually to my face. Her glances were not given in full, but out of the

corners, so quietly, so stealthily, yet I think I lost not one. I watched her as keenly as she watched me; I

perceived soon that she was feeling after my real character; she was searching for salient points, and weak;

points, and eccentric points; she was applying now this test, now that, hoping in the end to find some chink,

some niche, where she could put in her little firm foot and stand upon my neckmistress of my nature, Do

not mistake me, reader, it was no amorous influence she wished to gainat that time it was only the power

of the politician to which she aspired; I was now installed as a professor in her establishment, and she wanted

to know where her mind was superior to mineby what feeling or opinion she could lead me.

I enjoyed the game much, and did not hasten its conclusion; sometimes I gave her hopes, beginning a

sentence rather weakly, when her shrewd eye would light upshe thought she had me; having led her a little

way, I delighted to turn round and finish with sound, hard sense, whereat her countenance would fall. At last

a servant entered to announce dinner; the conflict being thus necessarily terminated, we parted without

having gained any advantage on either side: Mdlle. Reuter had not even given me an opportunity of attacking

her with feeling, and I had managed to baffle her little schemes of craft. It was a regular drawn battle. I again

held out my hand when I left the room, she gave me hers; it was a small and white hand, but how cool! I met

her eye too in fullobliging her to give me a straightforward look; this last test went against me: it left her as

"I am growing wiser," thought I, as I walked back to M. Pelet's. "Look at this little woman; is she like the

women of novelists and romancers? To read of female character as depicted in Poetry and Fiction, one would

think it was made up of sentiment, either for good or badhere is a specimen, and a most sensible and

respectable specimen, too, whose staple ingredient is abstract reason. No Talleyrand was ever more

passionless than Zoraide Reuter!" So I thought then; I found afterwards that blunt susceptibilities are very

I HAD indeed had a very long talk with the crafty little politician, and on regaining my quarters, I found that

dinner was half over. To be late at meals was against a standing rule of the establishment, and had it been one

of the Flemish ushers who thus entered after the removal of the soup and the commencement of the first

course, M. Pelet would probably have greeted him with a public rebuke, and would certainly have mulcted

him both of soup and fish; as it was, that polite though partial gentleman only shook his head, and as I took

my place, unrolled my napkin, and said my heretical grace to myself, he civilly despatched a servant to the

kitchen, to bring me a plate of "puree aux carottes" (for this was a maigreday), and before sending away the

first course, reserved for me a portion of the stockfish of which it consisted. Dinner being over, the boys

rushed out for their evening play; Kint and Vandam (the two ushers) of course followed them. Poor fellows!

if they had not looked so very heavy, so very soulless, so very indifferent to all things in heaven above or in

the earth beneath, I could have pitied them greatly for the obligation they were under to trail after those rough

lads everywhere and at all times; even as it was, I felt disposed to scout myself as a privileged prig when I

turned to ascend to my chamber, sure to find there, if not enjoyment, at least liberty; but this evening (as had

"Eh bien, mauvais sujet!" said the voice of M. Pelet behind me, as I set my foot on the first step of the stair,

"I beg pardon, monsieur," said I, as I followed him to his private sittingroom, "for having returned so

"That is just what I want to know," rejoined M. Pelet, as he ushered me into the comfortable parlour with a

good woodfire for the stove had now been removed for the season. Having rung the bell he ordered

"Coffee for two," and presently he and I were seated, almost in English comfort, one on each side of the

hearth, a little round table between us, with a coffeepot, a sugarbasin, and two large white china cups.

While M. Pelet employed himself in choosing a cigar from a box, my thoughts reverted to the two outcast

ushers, whose voices I could hear even now crying hoarsely for order in the playground.

I remarked that I thought Messieurs Vandam and Kint must sometimes be a little fatigued with their labours.

"Des betes de somme,des betes de somme," murmured scornfully the director. Meantime I offered him his

"Servezvous mon garcon," said he blandly, when I had put a couple of huge lumps of continental sugar into

his cup. "And now tell me why you stayed so long at Mdlle. Reuter's. I know that lessons conclude, in her

establishment as in mine, at four o'clock, and when you returned it was past five."

"A fertile topic! and did she discourse thereon in the schoolroom, before the pupils?"

"In that case, monsieur will be able to aid me in finding out what was mademoiselle's reason for making me

sit before her sofa one mortal hour, listening to the most copious and fluent dissertation on the merest

"Why, the sentimental. Any woman sinking her shaft deep enough, will at last reach a fathomless spring of

"Is Mdlle. Reuter of the number? Come, speak frankly, mon fils; elle est encore jeune, plus agee que toi

peutetre, mais juste asset pour unir la tendresse d'une petite maman a l'amour d'une epouse devouee;

"In what does she not suit you, William? She is personally agreeable, is she not?"

"Very; her hair and complexion are just what I admire; and her turn of form, though quite Belgian, is full of

"Ah, yes! her mouth," said M. Pelet, and he chuckled inwardly. "There is character about her

"True, but that expression of craft is owing to her eyebrows; have you remarked her eyebrows?"

"It is a treat, notwithstanding. Observe her when she has some knitting, or some other woman's work in hand,

and sits the image of peace, calmly intent on her needles and her silk, some discussion meantime going on

around her, in the course of which peculiarities of character are being developed, or important interests

canvassed; she takes no part in it; her humble, feminine mind is wholly with her knitting; none of her features

move; she neither presumes to smile approval, nor frown disapprobation; her little hands assiduously ply their

unpretending task; if she can only get this purse finished, or this bonnetgrec completed, it is enough for her.

If gentlemen approach her chair, a deeper quiescence, a meeker modesty settles on her features, and clothes

her general mien; observe then her eyebrows, et ditesmoi s'il n'y a pas du chat dans l'un et du renard dans

"And then," continued M. Pelet, "the eyelid will flicker, the lightcoloured lashes be lifted a second, and a

blue eye, glancing out from under the screen, will take its brief, sly, searching survey, and retreat again."

"Marry! Will birds pair? Of course it is both her intention and resolution to marry when she finds a suitable

match, and no one is better aware than herself of the sort of impression she is capable of producing; no one

likes better to captivate in a quiet way. I am mistaken if she will not yet leave the print of her stealing steps

"That to begin with; let respect be the foundation, affection the first floor, love the superstructure; Mdlle.

"Yes, yes, no doubt; it will be the cement between every stone. And now we have discussed the directress,

"Studies of character? Yes; curious ones, at least, I imagine; but one cannot divine much from a first

"Ah, you affect discretion; but tell me now, were you not a little abashed before these blooming young

"It is true, notwithstanding. At first I thought them angels, but they did not leave me long under that delusion;

three of the eldest and handsomest undertook the task of setting me right, and they managed so cleverly that

in five minutes I knew them, at least, for what they werethree arrant coquettes."

"Je les connais!" exclaimed M. Pelet. "Elles sont toujours au premier rang a l'eglise et a la promenade; une

"Lovely creatures all of themheads for artists; what a group they would make, taken together! Eulalie (I

know their names), with her smooth braided hair and calm ivory brow. Hortense, with her rich chesnut locks

so luxuriantly knotted, plaited, twisted, as if she did not know how to dispose of all their abundance, with her

vermilion lips, damask cheek, and roguish laughing eye. And Caroline de Blemont! Ah, there is beauty!

beauty in perfection. What a cloud of sable curls about the face of a houri! What fascinating lips! What

glorious black eyes! Your Byron would have worshipped her, and youyou cold, frigid islander!you

played the austere, the insensible in the presence of an Aphrodite so exquisite?"

I might have laughed at the director's enthusiasm had I believed it real, but there was something in his tone

which indicated gotup raptures. I felt he was only affecting fervour in order to put me off my guard, to

"Confess, William, do not the mere good looks of Zoraide Reuter appear dowdyish and commonplace

The question discomposed me, but I now felt plainly that my principal was endeavouring (for reasons best

known to himselfat that time I could not fathom them) to excite ideas and wishes in my mind alien to what

was right and honourable. The iniquity of the instigation proved its antidote, and when he further added:

"Each of those three beautiful girls will have a handsome fortune; and with a little address, a gentlemanlike,

intelligent young fellow like you might make himself master of the hand, heart, and purse of any one of the

He laughed a forced laugh, affirmed that he had only been joking, and demanded whether I could possibly

have thought him in earnest. Just then the bell rang; the playhour was over; it was an evening on which M.

Pelet was accustomed to read passages from the drama and the belles lettres to his pupils. He did not wait for

my answer, but rising, left the room, humming as he went some gay strain of Beranger's.

DAILY, as I continued my attendance at the seminary of Mdlle. Reuter, did I find fresh occasions to compare

the ideal with the real. What had I known of female character previously to my arrival at Brussels? Precious

little. And what was my notion of it? Something vague, slight, gauzy, glittering; now when I came in contact

with it I found it to be a palpable substance enough; very hard too sometimes, and often heavy; there was

Let the idealists, the dreamers about earthly angel and human flowers, just look here while I open my

portfolio and show them a sketch or two, pencilled after nature. I took these sketches in the secondclass

schoolroom of Mdlle. Reuter's establishment, where about a hundred specimens of the genus "jeune fille"

collected together, offered a fertile variety of subject. A miscellaneous assortment they were, differing both in

caste and country; as I sat on my estrade and glanced over the long range of desks, I had under my eye

French, English, Belgians, Austrians, and Prussians. The majority belonged to the class bourgeois; but there

were many countesses, there were the daughters of two generals and of several colonels, captains, and

government EMPLOYES; these ladies sat side by side with young females destined to be demoiselles de

magasins, and with some Flamandes, genuine aborigines of the country. In dress all were nearly similar, and

in manners there was small difference; exceptions there were to the general rule, but the majority gave the

tone to the establishment, and that tone was rough, boisterous, masked by a pointblank disregard of all

forbearance towards each other or their teachers; an eager pursuit by each individual of her own interest and

convenience; and a coarse indifference to the interest and convenience of every one else. Most of them could

lie with audacity when it appeared advantageous to do so. All understood the art of speaking fair when a

point was to be gained, and could with consummate skill and at a moment's notice turn the cold shoulder the

instant civility ceased to be profitable. Very little open quarrelling ever took place amongst them; but

backbiting and talebearing were universal. Close friendships were forbidden by the rules of the school, and

no one girl seemed to cultivate more regard for another than was just necessary to secure a companion when

solitude would have been irksome. They were each and all supposed to have been reared in utter

unconsciousness of vice. The precautions used to keep them ignorant, if not innocent, were innumerable.

How was it, then, that scarcely one of those girls having attained the age of fourteen could look a man in the

face with modesty and propriety? An air of bold, impudent flirtation, or a loose, silly leer, was sure to answer

the most ordinary glance from a masculine eye. I know nothing of the arcana of the Roman Catholic religion,

and I am not a bigot in matters of theology, but I suspect the root of this precocious impurity, so obvious, so

general in Popish countries, is to be found in the discipline, if not the doctrines of the Church of Rome. I

record what I have seen: these girls belonged to what are called the respectable ranks of society; they had all

been carefully brought up, yet was the mass of them mentally depraved. So much for the general view: now

The first picture is a full length of Aurelia Koslow, a German fraulein, or rather a halfbreed between

German and Russian. She is eighteen years of age, and has been sent to Brussels to finish her education; she

is of middle size, stiffly made, body long, legs short, bust much developed but not compactly moulded, waist

disproportionately compressed by an inhumanly braced corset, dress carefully arranged, large feet tortured

into small bottines, head small, hair smoothed, braided, oiled, and gummed to perfection; very low forehead,

very diminutive and vindictive grey eyes, somewhat Tartar features, rather flat nose, rather highcheek

bones, yet the ensemble not positively ugly; tolerably good complexion. So much for person. As to mind,

deplorably ignorant and illinformed: incapable of writing or speaking correctly even German, her native

tongue, a dunce in French, and her attempts at learning English a mere farce, yet she has been at school

twelve years; but as she invariably gets her exercises, of every description, done by a fellow pupil, and reads

her lessons off a book; concealed in her lap, it is not wonderful that her progress has been so snaillike. I do

not know what Aurelia's daily habits of life are, because I have not the opportunity of observing her at all

times; but from what I see of the state of her desk, books, and papers, I should say she is slovenly and even

dirty; her outward dress, as I have said, is well attended to, but in passing behind her bench, I have remarked

that her neck is gray for want of washing, and her hair, so glossy with gum and grease, is not such as one

feels tempted to pass the hand over, much less to run the fingers through. Aurelia's conduct in class, at least

when I am present, is something extraordinary, considered as an index of girlish innocence. The moment I

enter the room, she nudges her next neighbour and indulges in a halfsuppressed laugh. As I take my seat on

the estrade, she fixes her eye on me; she seems resolved to attract, and, if possible, monopolize my notice: to

this end she launches at me all sorts of looks, languishing, provoking, leering, laughing. As I am found quite

proof against this sort of artilleryfor we scorn what, unasked, is lavishly offered she has recourse to the

expedient of making noises; sometimes she sighs, sometimes groans, sometimes utters inarticulate sounds,

for which language has no name. If, in walking up the schoolroom, I pass near her, she puts out her foot that

it may touch mine; if I do not happen to observe the manoeuvre, and my boot comes in contact with her

brodequin, she affects to fall into convulsions of suppressed laughter; if I notice the snare and avoid it, she

expresses her mortification in sullen muttering, where I hear myself abused in bad French, pronounced with

Not far from Mdlle. Koslow sits another young lady by name Adele Dronsart: this is a Belgian, rather low of

stature, in form heavy, with broad waist, short neck and limbs, good red and white complexion, features well

chiselled and regular, wellcut eyes of a clear brown colour, light brown hair, good teeth, age not much

above fifteen, but as fullgrown as a stout young Englishwoman of twenty. This portrait gives the idea of a

somewhat dumpy but goodlooking damsel, does it not? Well, when I looked along the row of young heads,

my eye generally stopped at this of Adele's; her gaze was ever waiting for mine, and it frequently succeeded

in arresting it. She was an unnaturallooking beingso young, fresh, blooming, yet so Gorgonlike.

Suspicion, sullen illtemper were on her forehead, vicious propensities in her eye, envy and pantherlike

deceit about her mouth. In general she sat very still; her massive shape looked as if it could not bend much,

nor did her large headso broad at the base, so narrow towards the topseem made to turn readily on her

short neck. She had but two varieties of expression; the prevalent one a forbidding, dissatisfied scowl, varied

sometimes by a most pernicious and perfidious smile. She was shunned by her fellowpupils, for, bad as

Aurelia and Adele were in the first division of the second class; the second division was headed by a

pensionnaire named Juanna Trista. This girl was of mixed Belgian and Spanish origin; her Flemish mother

was dead, her Catalonian father was a merchant residing in the Isles, where Juanna had been born and

whence she was sent to Europe to be educated. I wonder that any one, looking at that girl's head and

countenance, would have received her under their roof. She had precisely the same shape of skull as Pope

Alexander the Sixth; her organs of benevolence, veneration, conscientiousness, adhesiveness, were singularly

small, those of selfesteem, firmness, destructiveness, combativeness, preposterously large; her head sloped

up in the penthouse shape, was contracted about the forehead, and prominent behind; she had rather good,

though large and marked features; her temperament was fibrous and bilious, her complexion pale and dark,

Juanna was not very thin, but she had a gaunt visage, and her "regard" was fierce and hungry; narrow as was

her brow, it presented space enough for the legible graving of two words, Mutiny and Hate; in some one of

her other lineaments I think the eyecowardice had also its distinct cipher. Mdlle. Trista thought fit to

trouble my first lessons with a coarse workday sort of turbulence; she made noises with her mouth like a

horse, she ejected her saliva, she uttered brutal expressions; behind and below her were seated a band of very

vulgar, inferiorlooking Flamandes, including two or three examples of that deformity of person and

imbecility of intellect whose frequency in the Low Countries would seem to furnish proof that the climate is

such as to induce degeneracy of the human mind and body; these, I soon found, were completely under her

influence, and with their aid she got up and sustained a swinish tumult, which I was constrained at last to

quell by ordering her and two of her tools to rise from their seats, and, having kept them standing five

minutes, turning them bodily out of the schoolroom: the accomplices into a large place adjoining called the

grands salle; the principal into a cabinet, of which I closed the door and pocketed the key. This judgment I

executed in the presence of Mdlle. Reuter, who looked much aghast at beholding so decided a

proceedingthe most severe that had ever been ventured on in her establishment. Her look of affright I

answered with one of composure, and finally with a smile, which perhaps flattered, and certainly soothed her.

Juanna Trista remained in Europe long enough to repay, by malevolence and ingratitude, all who had ever

done her a good turn; and she then went to join her father in the Isles, exulting in the thought that she

These three pictures are from the life. I possess others, as marked and as little agreeable, but I will spare my

Doubtless it will be thought that I ought now, by way of contrast, to show something charming; some gentle

virgin head, circled with a halo, some sweet personification of innocence, clasping the dove of peace to her

bosom. No: I saw nothing of the sort, and therefore cannot portray it. The pupil in the school possessing the

happiest disposition was a young girl from the country, Louise Path; she was sufficiently benevolent and

obliging, but not well taught nor well mannered; moreover, the plaguespot of dissimulation was in her also;

honour and principle were unknown to her, she had scarcely heard their names. The least exceptionable pupil

was the poor little Sylvie I have mentioned once before. Sylvie was gentle in manners, intelligent in mind;

she was even sincere, as far as her religion would permit her to be so, but her physical organization was

defective; weak health stunted her growth and chilled her spirits, and then, destined as she was for the

cloister, her whole soul was warped to a conventual bias, and in the tame, trained subjection of her manner,

one read that she had already prepared herself for her future course of life, by giving up her independence of

thought and action into the hands of some despotic confessor. She permitted herself no original opinion, no

preference of companion or employment; in everything she was guided by another. With a pale, passive,

automaton air, she went about all day long doing what she was bid; never what she liked, or what, from

innate conviction, she thought it right to do. The poor little future religieuse had been early taught to make

the dictates of her own reason and conscience quite subordinate to the will of her spiritual director. She was

the model pupil of Mdlle. Reuter's establishment; pale, blighted image, where life lingered feebly, but

A few English pupils there were in this school, and these might be divided into two classes. 1st. The

continental Englishthe daughters chiefly of broken adventurers, whom debt or dishonour had driven from

their own country. These poor girls had never known the advantages of settled homes, decorous example, or

honest Protestant education; resident a few months now in one Catholic school, now in another, as their

parents wandered from land to landfrom France to Germany, from Germany to Belgium they had

picked up some scanty instruction, many bad habits, losing every notion even of the first elements of religion

and morals, and acquiring an imbecile indifference to every sentiment that can elevate humanity; they were

distinguishable by an habitual look of sullen dejection, the result of crushed selfrespect and constant

browbeating from their Popish fellowpupils, who hated them as English, and scorned them as heretics.

The second class were British English. Of these I did not encounter half a dozen during the whole time of my

attendance at the seminary; their characteristics were clean but careless dress, illarranged hair (compared

with the tight and trim foreigners), erect carriage, flexible figures, white and taper hands, features more

irregular, but also more intellectual than those of the Belgians, grave and modest countenances, a general air

of native propriety and decency; by this last circumstance alone I could at a glance distinguish the daughter of

Albion and nursling of Protestantism from the fosterchild of Rome, the PROTEGEE of Jesuistry: proud,

too, was the aspect of these British girls; at once envied and ridiculed by their continental associates, they

warded off insult with austere civility, and met hate with mute disdain; they eschewed companykeeping,

The teachers presiding over this mixed multitude were three in number, all Frenchtheir names Mdlles.

Zephyrine, Pelagie, and Suzette; the two last were commonplace personages enough; their look was ordinary,

their manner was ordinary, their temper was ordinary, their thoughts, feelings, and views were all ordinary

were I to write a chapter on the subject I could not elucidate it further. Zephyrine was somewhat more

distinguished in appearance and deportment than Pelagie and Suzette, but in character genuine Parisian

coquette, perfidious, mercenary, and dryhearted. A fourth maitresse I sometimes saw who seemed to come

daily to teach needlework, or netting, or lacemending, or some such flimsy art; but of her I never had more

than a passing glimpse, as she sat in the CARRE, with her frames and some dozen of the elder pupils about

her, consequently I had no opportunity of studying her character, or even of observing her person much; the

latter, I remarked, had a very English air for a maitresse, otherwise it was not striking; of character I should

think; she possessed but little, as her pupils seemed constantly "en revolte" against her authority. She did not

Amidst this assemblage of all that was insignificant and defective, much that was vicious and repulsive (by

that last epithet many would have described the two or three stiff, silent, decently behaved, illdressed British

girls), the sensible, sagacious, affable directress shone like a steady star over a marsh full of

Jacko'lanthorns; profoundly aware of her superiority, she derived an inward bliss from that consciousness

which sustained her under all the care and responsibility inseparable from her position; it kept her temper

calm, her brow smooth, her manner tranquil. She likedas who would not?on entering the schoolroom,

to feel that her sole presence sufficed to diffuse that order and quiet which all the remonstrances, and even

commands, of her underlings frequently failed to enforce; she liked to stand in comparison, or

rathercontrast, with those who surrounded her, and to know that in personal as well as mental advantages,

she bore away the undisputed palm of preference(the three teachers were all plain.) Her pupils she

managed with such indulgence and address, taking always on herself the office of recompenser and eulogist,

and abandoning to her subalterns every invidious task of blame and punishment, that they all regarded her

with deference, if not with affection; her teachers did not love her, but they submitted because they were her

inferiors in everything; the various masters who attended her school were each and all in some way or other

under her influence; over one she had acquired power by her skilful management of his bad temper; over

another by little attentions to his petty caprices; a third she had subdued by flattery; a fourtha timid

manshe kept in awe by a sort of austere decision of mien; me, she still watched, still tried by the most

ingenious testsshe roved round me, baffled, yet persevering; I believe she thought I was like a smooth and

bare precipice, which offered neither jutting stone nor treeroot, nor tuft of grass to aid the climber. Now she

flattered with exquisite tact, now she moralized, now she tried how far I was accessible to mercenary

motives, then she disported on the brink of affectionknowing that some men are won by weaknessanon,

she talked excellent sense, aware that others have the folly to admire judgment. I found it at once pleasant and

easy to evade all these efforts; it was sweet, when she thought me nearly won, to turn round and to smile in

her very eyes, half scornfully, and then to witness her scarcely veiled, though mute mortification. Still she

persevered, and at last, I am bound to confess it, her finger, essaying, proving every atom of the casket,

touched its secret spring, and for a moment the lid sprung open; she laid her hand on the jewel within;

whether she stole and broke it, or whether the lid shut again with a snap on her fingers, read on, and you shall

It happened that I came one day to give a lesson when I was indisposed; I had a bad cold and a cough; two

hours' incessant talking left me very hoarse and tired; as I quitted the schoolroom, and was passing along the

corridor, I met Mdlle. Reuter; she remarked, with an anxious air, that I looked very pale and tired. "Yes," I

said, "I was fatigued;" and then, with increased interest, she rejoined, "You shall not go away till you have

had some refreshment." She persuaded me to step into the parlour, and was very kind and gentle while I

stayed. The next day she was kinder still; she came herself into the class to see that the windows were closed,

and that there was no draught; she exhorted me with friendly earnestness not to overexert myself; when I

went away, she gave me her hand unasked, and I could not but mark, by a respectful and gentle pressure, that

I was sensible of the favour, and grateful for it. My modest demonstration kindled a little merry smile on her

countenance; I thought her almost charming. During the remainder of the evening, my mind was full of

impatience for the afternoon of the next day to arrive, that I might see her again.

I was not disappointed, for she sat in the class during the whole of my subsequent lesson, and often looked at

me almost with affection. At four o'clock she accompanied me out of the schoolroom, asking with solicitude

after my health, then scolding me sweetly because I spoke too loud and gave myself too much trouble; I

stopped at the glassdoor which led into the garden, to hear her lecture to the end; the door was open, it was a

very fine day, and while I listened to the soothing reprimand, I looked at the sunshine and flowers, and felt

very happy. The dayscholars began to pour from the schoolrooms into the passage.

In another minute I and the directress were walking side by side down the alley bordered with fruittrees,

whose white blossoms were then in full blow as well as their tender green leaves. The sky was blue, the air

still, the May afternoon was full of brightness and fragrance. Released from the stifling class, surrounded

with flowers and foliage, with a pleasing, smiling, affable woman at my sidehow did I feel? Why, very

enviably. It seemed as if the romantic visions my imagination had suggested of this garden, while it was yet

hidden from me by the jealous boards, were more than realized; and, when a turn in the alley shut out the

view of the house, and some tall shrubs excluded M. Pelet's mansion, and screened us momentarily from the

other houses, rising amphitheatrelike round this green spot, I gave my arm to Mdlle. Reuter, and led her to a

gardenchair, nestled under some lilacs near. She sat down; I took my place at her side. She went on talking

to me with that ease which communicates ease, and, as I listened, a revelation dawned in my mind that I was

on the brink of falling in love. The dinnerbell rang, both at her house and M. Pelet's; we were obliged to

"What a caprice!" she exclaimed, but she raised herself on her tiptoes, and, plucking a beautiful branch of

lilac, offered it to me with grace. I took it, and went away, satisfied for the present, and hopeful for the future.

Certainly that May day was a lovely one, and it closed in moonlight night of summer warmth and serenity. I

remember this well; for, having sat up late that evening, correcting devoirs, and feeling weary and a little

oppressed with the closeness of my small room, I opened the oftenmentioned boarded window, whose

boards, however, I had persuaded old Madame Pelet to have removed since I had filled the post of professor

in the pensionnat de demoiselles, as, from that time, it was no longer "inconvenient" for me to overlook my

own pupils at their sports. I sat down in the windowseat, rested my arm on the sill, and leaned out: above me

was the clearobscure of a cloudless night sky splendid moonlight subdued the tremulous sparkle of the

stars below lay the garden, varied with silvery lustre and deep shade, and all fresh with dewa grateful

perfume exhaled from the closed blossoms of the fruittreesnot a leaf stirred, the night was breezeless. My

window looked directly down upon a certain walk of Mdlle. Reuter's garden, called "l'allee defendue," so

named because the pupils were forbidden to enter it on account of its proximity to the boys' school. It was

here that the lilacs and laburnums grew especially thick; this was the most sheltered nook in the enclosure, its

shrubs screened the gardenchair where that afternoon I had sat with the young directress. I need not say that

my thoughts were chiefly with her as I leaned from the lattice, and let my; eye roam, now over the walks and

borders of the garden, now along the manywindowed front of the house which rose white beyond the

masses of foliage. I wondered in what part of the building was situated her apartment; and a single light,

"She watches late," thought I, "for it must be now near midnight. She is a fascinating little woman," I

continued in voiceless soliloquy; "her image forms a pleasant picture in memory; I know she is not what the

world calls prettyno matter, there is harmony in her aspect, and I like it; her brown hair, her blue eye, the

freshness of her cheek, the whiteness of her neck, all suit my taste. Then I respect her talent; the idea of

marrying a doll or a fool was always abhorrent to me: I know that a pretty doll, a fair fool, might do well

enough for the honeymoon; but when passion cooled, how dreadful to find a lump of wax and wood laid in

my bosom, a half idiot clasped in my arms, and to remember that I had made of this my equalnay, my

idolto know that I must pass the rest of my dreary life with a creature incapable of understanding what I

said, of appreciating what I thought, or of sympathizing with what I felt! "Now, Zoraide Reuter," thought I,

"has tact, CARACTERE, judgment, discretion; has she heart? What a good, simple little smile played about

her lips when she gave me the branch of lilacs! I have thought her crafty, dissembling, interested sometimes,

it is true; but may not much that looks like cunning and dissimulation in her conduct be only the efforts made

by a bland temper to traverse quietly perplexing difficulties? And as to interest, she wishes to make her way

in the world, no doubt, and who can blame her? Even if she be truly deficient in sound principle, is it not

rather her misfortune than her fault? She has been brought up a Catholic: had she been born an

Englishwoman, and reared a Protestant, might she not have added straight integrity to all her other

excellences? Supposing she were to marry an English and Protestant husband, would she not, rational,

sensible as she is, quickly acknowledge the superiority of right over expediency, honesty over policy? It

would be worth a man's while to try the experiment; tomorrow I will renew my observations. She knows

that I watch her: how calm she is under scrutiny! it seems rather to gratify than annoy her." Here a strain of

music stole in upon my monologue, and suspended it; it was a bugle, very skilfully played, in the

neighbourhood of the park, I thought, or on the Place Royale. So sweet were the tones, so subduing their

effect at that hour, in the midst of silence and under the quiet reign of moonlight, I ceased to think, that I

might listen more intently. The strain retreated, its sound waxed fainter and was soon gone; my ear prepared

to repose on the absolute hush of midnight once more. No. What murmur was that which, low, and yet near

and approaching nearer, frustrated the expectation of total silence? It was some one conversingyes,

evidently, an audible, though subdued voice spoke in the garden immediately below me. Another answered;

the first voice was that of a man, the second that of a woman; and a man and a woman I saw coming slowly

down the alley. Their forms were at first in shade, I could but discern a dusk outline of each, but a ray of

moonlight met them at the termination of the walk, when they were under my very nose, and revealed very

plainly, very unequivocally, Mdlle. Zoraide Reuter, arminarm, or handinhand (I forget which) with my

principal, confidant, and counsellor, M. Francois Pelet. And M. Pelet was saying

"Mais, Francois, tu sais bien qu'il me serait impossible de me marier avant les vacances."

"June, July, August, a whole quarter!" exclaimed the director. "How can I wait so long?I who am ready,

"Ah! if you die, the whole affair will be settled without any trouble about notaries and contracts; I shall only

have to order a slight mourning dress, which will be much sooner prepared than the nuptial trousseau."

"Cruel Zoraide! you laugh at the distress of one who loves you so devotedly as I do: my torment is your

sport; you scruple not to stretch my soul on the rack of jealousy; for, deny it as you will, I am certain you

have cast encouraging glances on that schoolboy, Crimsworth; he has presumed to fall in love, which he

"Nobut I see it in his face: he blushes whenever your name is mentioned." A little laugh of exulting

coquetry announced Mdlle. Reuter's gratification at this piece of intelligence (which was a lie, bythebyI

had never been so far gone as that, after all). M. Pelet proceeded to ask what she intended to do with me,

intimating pretty plainly, and not very gallantly, that it was nonsense for her to think of taking such a

"blancbec" as a husband, since she must be at least ten years older than I (was she then thirtytwo? I should

not have thought it). I heard her disclaim any intentions on the subjectthe director, however, still pressed

"Francois," said she, "you are jealous," and still she laughed; then, as if suddenly recollecting that this

coquetry was not consistent with the character for modest dignity she wished to establish, she proceeded, in a

demure voice: "Truly, my dear Francois, I will not deny that this young Englishman may have made some

attempts to ingratiate himself with me; but, so far from giving him any encouragement, I have always treated

him with as much reserve as it was possible to combine with civility; affianced as I am to you, I would give

no man false hopes; believe me, dear friend." Still Pelet uttered murmurs of distrustso I judged, at least,

"What folly! How could I prefer an unknown foreigner to you? And thennot to flatter your

vanityCrimsworth could not bear comparison with you either physically or mentally; he is not a handsome

man at all; some may call him gentlemanlike and intelligentlooking, but for my part"

The rest of the sentence was lost in the distance, as the pair, rising from the chair in which they had been

seated, moved away. I waited their return, but soon the opening and shutting of a door informed me that they

had reentered the house; I listened a little longer, all was perfectly still; I listened more than an hourat last

I heard M. Pelet come in and ascend to his chamber. Glancing once more towards the long front of the

gardenhouse, I perceived that its solitary light was at length extinguished; so, for a time, was my faith is

love and friendship. I went to bed, but something feverish and fiery had got into my veins which prevented

NEXT morning I rose with the dawn, and having dressed myself and stood halfanhour, my elbow leaning

on the chest of drawers, considering what means I should adopt to restore my spirits, fagged with

sleeplessness, to their ordinary tonefor I had no intention of getting up a scene with M. Pelet, reproaching

him with perfidy, sending him a challenge, or performing other gambadoes of the sortI hit at last on the

expedient of walking out in the cool of the morning to a neighbouring establishment of baths, and treating

myself to a bracing plunge. The remedy produced the desired effect. I came back at seven o'clock steadied

and invigorated, and was able to greet M. Pelet, when he entered to breakfast, with an unchanged and tranquil

countenance; even a cordial offering of the hand and the flattering appellation of "mon fils," pronounced in

that caressing tone with which Monsieur had, of late days especially, been accustomed to address me, did not

elicit any external sign of the feeling which, though subdued, still glowed at my heart. Not that I nursed

vengeanceno; but the sense of insult and treachery lived in me like a kindling, though as yet smothered

coal. God knows I am not by nature vindictive; I would not hurt a man because I can no longer trust or like

him; but neither my reason nor feelings are of the vacillating orderthey are not of that sandlike sort where

impressions, if soon made, are as soon effaced. Once convinced that my friend's disposition is incompatible

with my own, once assured that he is indelibly stained with certain defects obnoxious to my principles, and I

dissolve the connection. I did so with Edward. As to Pelet, the discovery was yet new; should I act thus with

him? It was the question I placed before my mind as I stirred my cup of coffee with a halfpistolet (we never

had spoons), Pelet meantime being seated opposite, his pallid face looking as knowing and more haggard

than usual, his blue eye turned, now sternly on his boys and ushers, and now graciously on me.

"Circumstances must guide me," said I; and meeting Pelet's false glance and insinuating smile, I thanked

heaven that I had last night opened my window and read by the light of a full moon the true meaning of that

guileful countenance. I felt half his master, because the reality of his nature was now known to me; smile and

flatter as he would, I saw his soul lurk behind his smile, and heard in every one of his smooth phrases a voice

But Zoraide Reuter? Of course her defection had cut me to the quick? That stint; must have gone too deep for

any consolations of philosophy to be available in curing its smart? Not at all. The night fever over, I looked

about for balm to that wound also, and found some nearer home than at Gilead. Reason was my physician;

she began by proving that the prize I had missed was of little value: she admitted that, physically, Zoraide

might have suited me, but affirmed that our souls were not in harmony, and that discord must have resulted

from the union of her mind with mine. She then insisted on the suppression of all repining, and commanded

me rather to rejoice that I had escaped a snare. Her medicament did me good. I felt its strengthening effect

when I met the directress the next day; its stringent operation on the nerves suffered no trembling, no

faltering; it enabled me to face her with firmness, to pass her with ease. She had held out her hand to

methat I did not choose to see. She had greeted me with a charming smileit fell on my heart like light on

stone. I passed on to the estrade, she followed me; her eye, fastened on my face, demanded of every feature

the meaning of my changed and careless manner. "I will give her an answer," thought I; and, meeting her

gaze full, arresting, fixing her glance, I shot into her eyes, from my own, a look, where there was no respect,

no love, no tenderness, no gallantry; where the strictest analysis could detect nothing but scorn, hardihood,

irony. I made her bear it, and feel it; her steady countenance did not change, but her colour rose, and she

approached me as if fascinated. She stepped on to the estrade, and stood close by my side; she had nothing to

say. I would not relieve her embarrassment, and negligently turned over the leaves of a book.

"And I, mademoiselle, hope that you took no cold last night in consequence of your late walk in the garden."

Quick enough of comprehension, she understood me directly; her face became a little blancheda very

littlebut no muscle in her rather marked features moved; and, calm and selfpossessed, she retired from the

estrade, taking her seat quietly at a little distance, and occupying herself with netting a purse. I proceeded to

give my lesson; it was a "Composition," i.e., I dictated certain general questions, of which the pupils were to

compose the answers from memory, access to books being forbidden. While Mdlle. Eulalie, Hortense,

Caroline, were pondering over the string of rather abstruse grammatical interrogatories I had propounded, I

was at liberty to employ the vacant half hour in further observing the directress herself. The green silk purse

was progressing fast in her hands; her eyes were bent upon it; her attitude, as she sat netting within two yards

of me, was still yet guarded; in her whole person were expressed at once, and with equal clearness, vigilance

and reposea rare union! Looking at her, I was forced, as I had often been before, to offer her good sense,

her wondrous selfcontrol, the tribute of involuntary admiration. She had felt that I had withdrawn from her

my esteem; she had seen contempt and coldness in my eye, and to her, who coveted the approbation of all

around her, who thirsted after universal good opinion, such discovery must have been an acute wound. I had

witnessed its effect in the momentary pallor of her cheekcheek unused to vary; yet how quickly, by dint of

selfcontrol, had she recovered her composure! With what quiet dignity she now sat, almost at my side,

sustained by her sound and vigorous sense; no trembling in her somewhat lengthened, though shrewd upper

"There is metal there," I said, as I gazed. "Would that there were fire also, living ardour to make the steel

Presently I discovered that she knew I was watching her, for she stirred not, she lifted not her crafty eyelid;

she had glanced down from her netting to her small foot, peeping from the soft folds of her purple merino

gown; thence her eye reverted to her hand, ivory white, with a bright garnet ring on the forefinger, and a light

frill of lace round the wrist; with a scarcely perceptible movement she turned her head, causing her

nutbrown curls to wave gracefully. In these slight signs I read that the wish of her heart, the design of her

brain, was to lure back the game she had scared. A little incident gave her the opportunity of addressing me

While all was silence in the classsilence, but for the rustling of copybooks and the travelling of pens over

their pagesa leaf of the large foldingdoor, opening from the hall, unclosed, admitting a pupil who, after

making a hasty obeisance, ensconced herself with some appearance of trepidation, probably occasioned by

her entering so late, in a vacant seat at the desk nearest the door. Being seated, she proceeded, still with an air

of hurry and embarrassment, to open her cabas, to take out her books; and, while I was waiting for her to look

up, in order to make out her identityfor, shortsighted as I was, I had not recognized her at her

"Monsieur Creemsvort," said she, in a whisper: for when the schoolrooms were silent, the directress always

moved with velvet tread, and spoke in the most subdued key, enforcing order and stillness fully as much by

example as precept: "Monsieur Creemsvort, that young person, who has just entered, wishes to have the

advantage of taking lessons with you in English; she is not a pupil of the house; she is, indeed, in one sense, a

teacher, for she gives instruction in lacemending, and in little varieties of ornamental needlework. She very

properly proposes to qualify herself for a higher department of education, and has asked permission to attend

your lessons, in order to perfect her knowledge of English, in which language she has, I believe, already

made some progress; of course it is my wish to aid her in an effort so praiseworthy; you will permit her then

to benefit by your instructionn'est ce pas, monsieur?" And Mdlle. Reuter's eyes were raised to mine with a

"Another word," she said, with softness: "Mdlle. Henri has not received a regular education; perhaps her

natural talents are not of the highest order: but I can assure you of the excellence of her intentions, and even

of the amiability of her disposition. Monsieur will then, I am sure, have the goodness to be considerate with

her at first, and not expose her backwardness, her inevitable deficiencies, before the young ladies, who, in a

sense, are her pupils. Will Monsieur Creemsvort favour me by attending to this hint?" I nodded. She

"Pardon me, monsieur, if I venture to add that what I have just said is of importance to the poor girl; she

already experiences great difficulty in impressing these giddy young things with a due degree of deference

for her authority, and should that difficulty be increased by new discoveries of her incapacity, she might find

her position in my establishment too painful to be retained; a circumstance I should much regret for her sake,

Mdlle. Reuter possessed marvellous tact; but tact the most exclusive, unsupported by sincerity, will

sometimes fail of its effect; thus, on this occasion, the longer she preached about the necessity of being

indulgent to the governess pupil, the more impatient I felt as I listened. I discerned so clearly that while her

professed motive was a wish to aid the dull, though wellmeaning Mdlle. Henri, her real one was no other

than a design to impress me with an idea of her own exalted goodness and tender considerateness; so having

again hastily nodded assent to her remarks, I obviated their renewal by suddenly demanding the

compositions, in a sharp accent, and stepping from the estrade, I proceeded to collect them. As I passed the

"You have come in too late to receive a lesson today; try to be more punctual next time."

I was behind her, and could not read in her face the effect of my not very civil speech. Probably I should not

have troubled myself to do so, had I been full in front; but I observed that she immediately began to slip her

books into her cabas again; and, presently, after I had returned to the estrade, while I was arranging the mass

of compositions, I heard the foldingdoor again open and close; and, on looking up, I perceived her place

vacant. I thought to myself, "She will consider her first attempt at taking a lesson in English something of a

failure;" and I wondered whether she had departed in the sulks, or whether stupidity had induced her to take

my words too literally, or, finally, whether my irritable tone had wounded her feelings. The last notion I

dismissed almost as soon as I had conceived it, for not having seen any appearance of sensitiveness in any

human face since my arrival in Belgium, I had begun to regard it almost as a fabulous quality. Whether her

physiognomy announced it I could not tell, for her speedy exit had allowed me no time to ascertain the

circumstance. I had, indeed, on two or three previous occasions, caught a passing view of her (as I believe has

been mentioned before); but I had never stopped to scrutinize either her face or person, and had but the most

vague idea of her general appearance. Just as I had finished rolling up the compositions, the four o'clock bell

rang; with my accustomed alertness in obeying that signal, I grasped my hat and evacuated the premises.

IF I was punctual in quitting Mdlle. Reuter's domicile, I was at least equally punctual in arriving there; I came

the next day at five minutes before two, and on reaching the schoolroom door, before I opened it, I heard a

rapid, gabbling sound, which warned me that the "priere du midi" was not yet concluded. I waited the

termination thereof; it would have been impious to intrude my heretical presence during its progress. How the

repeater of the prayer did cackle and splutter! I never before or since heard language enounced with such

steamengine haste. "Notre Pere qui etes au ciel" went off like a shot; then followed an address to Marie

"vierge celeste, reine des anges, maison d'or, tour d'ivoire!" and then an invocation to the saint of the day; and

then down they all sat, and the solemn (?) rite was over; and I entered, flinging the door wide and striding in

fast, as it was my wont to do now; for I had found that in entering with aplomb, and mounting the estrade

with emphasis, consisted the grand secret of ensuring immediate silence. The foldingdoors between the two

classes, opened for the prayer, were instantly closed; a maitresse, workbox in hand, took her seat at her

appropriate desk; the pupils sat still with their pens and books before them; my three beauties in the van, now

well humbled by a demeanour of consistent coolness, sat erect with their hands folded quietly on their knees;

they had given up giggling and whispering to each other, and no longer ventured to utter pert speeches in my

presence; they now only talked to me occasionally with their eyes, by means of which organs they could still,

however, say very audacious and coquettish things. Had affection, goodness, modesty, real talent, ever

employed those bright orbs as interpreters, I do not think I could have refrained from giving a kind and

encouraging, perhaps an ardent reply now and then; but as it was, I found pleasure in answering the glance of

vanity with the gaze of stoicism. Youthful, fair, brilliant, as were many of my pupils, I can truly say that in

me they never saw any other bearing than such as an austere, though just guardian, might have observed

towards them. If any doubt the accuracy of this assertion, as inferring more conscientious selfdenial or

Scipiolike selfcontrol than they feel disposed to give me credit for, let them take into consideration the

following circumstances, which, while detracting from my merit, justify my veracity.

Know, O incredulous reader! that a master stands in a somewhat different relation towards a pretty,

lightheaded, probably ignorant girl, to that occupied by a partner at a ball, or a gallant on the promenade. A

professor does not meet his pupil to see her dressed in satin and muslin, with hair perfumed and curled, neck

scarcely shaded by aerial lace, round white arms circled with bracelets, feet dressed for the gliding dance. It is

not his business to whirl her through the waltz, to feed her with compliments, to heighten her beauty by the

flush of gratified vanity. Neither does he encounter her on the smoothrolled, tree shaded Boulevard, in the

green and sunny park, whither she repairs clad in her becoming walking dress, her scarf thrown with grace

over her shoulders, her little bonnet scarcely screening her curls, the red rose under its brim adding a new tint

to the softer rose on her cheek; her face and eyes, too, illumined with smiles, perhaps as transient as the

sunshine of the galaday, but also quite as brilliant; it is not his office to walk by her side, to listen to her

lively chat, to carry her parasol, scarcely larger than a broad green leaf, to lead in a ribbon her Blenheim

spaniel or Italian greyhound. No: he finds her in the schoolroom, plainly dressed, with books before her.

Owing to her education or her nature books are to her a nuisance, and she opens them with aversion, yet her

teacher must instil into her mind the contents of these books; that mind resists the admission of grave

information, it recoils, it grows restive, sullen tempers are shown, disfiguring frowns spoil the symmetry of

the face, sometimes coarse gestures banish grace from the deportment, while muttered expressions, redolent

of native and ineradicable vulgarity, desecrate the sweetness of the voice. Where the temperament is serene

though the intellect be sluggish, an unconquerable dullness opposes every effort to instruct. Where there is

cunning but not energy, dissimulation, falsehood, a thousand schemes and tricks are put in play to evade the

necessity of application; in short, to the tutor, female youth, female charms are like tapestry hangings, of

which the wrong side is continually turned towards him; and even when he sees the smooth, neat external

surface he so well knows what knots, long stitches, and jagged ends are behind that he has scarce a

temptation to admire too fondly the seemly forms and bright colours exposed to general view.

Our likings are regulated by our circumstances. The artist prefers a hilly country because it is picturesque; the

engineer a flat one because it is convenient; the man of pleasure likes what he calls "a fine woman"she

suits him; the fashionable young gentleman admires the fashionable young ladyshe is of his kind; the

toilworn, fagged, probably irritable tutor, blind almost to beauty, insensible to airs and graces, glories

chiefly in certain mental qualities: application, love of knowledge, natural capacity, docility, truthfulness,

gratefulness, are the charms that attract his notice and win his regard. These he seeks, but seldom meets;

these, if by chance he finds, he would fain retain for ever, and when separation deprives him of them he feels

as if some ruthless hand had snatched from him his only ewelamb. Such being the case, and the ease it is,

my readers will agree with me that there was nothing either very meritorious or very marvellous in the

integrity and moderation of my conduct at Mdlle. Reuter's pensionnat de demoiselles.

My first business this afternoon consisted in reading the list of places for the month, determined by the

relative correctness of the compositions given the preceding day. The list was headed, as usual, by the name

of Sylvie, that plain, quiet little girl I have described before as being at once the best and ugliest pupil in the

establishment; the second place had fallen to the lot of a certain Leonie Ledru, a diminutive, sharpfeatured,

and parchmentskinned creature of quick wits, frail conscience, and indurated feelings; a lawyerlike thing,

of whom I used to say that, had she been a boy, she would have made a model of an unprincipled, clever

attorney. Then came Eulalie, the proud beauty, the Juno of the school, whom six long years of drilling in the

simple grammar of the English language had compelled, despite the stiff phlegm of her intellect, to acquire a

mechanical acquaintance with most of its rules. No smile, no trace of pleasure or satisfaction appeared in

Sylvie's nunlike and passive face as she heard her name read first. I always felt saddened by the sight of that

poor girl's absolute quiescence on all occasions, and it was my custom to look at her, to address her, as

seldom as possible; her extreme docility, her assiduous perseverance, would have recommended her warmly

to my good opinion; her modesty, her intelligence, would have induced me to feel most kindlymost

affectionately towards her, notwithstanding the almost ghastly plainness of her features, the disproportion of

her form, the corpselike lack of animation in her countenance, had I not been aware that every friendly

word, every kindly action, would be reported by her to her confessor, and by him misinterpreted and

poisoned. Once I laid my hand on her head, in token of approbation; I thought Sylvie was going to smile, her

dim eye almost kindled; but, presently, she shrank from me; I was a man and a heretic; she, poor child! a

destined nun and devoted Catholic: thus a fourfold wall of separation divided her mind from mine. A pert

smirk, and a hard glance of triumph, was Leonie's method of testifying her gratification; Eulalie looked sullen

and enviousshe had hoped to be first. Hortense and Caroline exchanged a reckless grimace on hearing their

names read out somewhere near the bottom of the list; the brand of mental inferiority was considered by them

as no disgrace, their hopes for the future being based solely on their personal attractions.

This affair arranged, the regular lesson followed. During a brief interval, employed by the pupils in ruling

their books, my eye, ranging carelessly over the benches, observed, for the first time, that the farthest seat in

the farthest rowa seat usually vacantwas again filled by the new scholar, the Mdlle. Henri so

ostentatiously recommended to me by the directress. Today I had on my spectacles; her appearance,

therefore, was clear to me at the first glance; I had not to puzzle over it. She looked young; yet, had I been

required to name her exact age, I should have been somewhat nonplussed; the slightness of her figure might

have suited seventeen; a certain anxious and preoccupied expression of face seemed the indication of riper

years. She was dressed, like all the rest, in a dark stuff gown and a white collar; her features were dissimilar

to any there, not so rounded, more defined, yet scarcely regular. The shape of her head too was different, the

superior part more developed, the base considerably less. I felt assured, at first sight, that she was not a

Belgian; her complexion, her countenance, her lineaments, her figure, were all distinct from theirs, and,

evidently, the type of another raceof a race less gifted with fullness of flesh and plenitude of blood; less

jocund, material, unthinking. When I first cast my eyes on her, she sat looking fixedly down, her chin resting

on her hand, and she did not change her attitude till I commenced the lesson. None of the Belgian girls would

have retained one position, and that a reflective one, for the same length of time. Yet, having intimated that

her appearance was peculiar, as being unlike that of her Flemish companions, I have little more to say

respecting it; I can pronounce no encomiums on her beauty, for she was not beautiful; nor offer condolence

on her plainness, for neither was she plain; a careworn character of forehead, and a corresponding moulding

of the mouth, struck me with a sentiment resembling surprise, but these traits would probably have passed

Now, reader, though I have spent more than a page in describing Mdlle. Henri, I know well enough that I

have left on your mind's eye no distinct picture of her; I have not painted her complexion, nor her eyes, nor

her hair, nor even drawn the outline of her shape. You cannot tell whether her nose was aquiline or retrousse,

whether her chin was long or short, her face square or oval; nor could I the first day, and it is not my intention

I gave a short exercise: which they all wrote down. I saw the new pupil was puzzled at first with the novelty

of the form and language; once or twice she looked at me with a sort of painful solicitude, as not

comprehending: at all what I meant; then she was not ready when the others were, she could not write her

phrases so fast as they did; I would not help her, I went on relentless. She looked at me; her eye said most

plainly, "I cannot follow you." I disregarded the appeal, and, carelessly leaning back in my chair, glancing

from time to time with a NONCHALANT air out of the window, I dictated a little faster. On looking towards

her again, I perceived her face clouded with embarrassment, but she was still writing on most diligently; I

paused a few seconds; she employed the interval in hurriedly reperusing what she had written, and shame

and discomfiture were apparent in her countenance; she evidently found she had made great nonsense of it. In

ten minutes more the dictation was complete, and, having allowed a brief space in which to correct it, I took

their books; it was with a reluctant hand Mdlle. Henri gave up hers, but, having once yielded it to my

possession, she composed her anxious face, as if, for the present she had resolved to dismiss regret, and had

made up her mind to be thought unprecedentedly stupid. Glancing over her exercise, I found that several lines

had been omitted, but what was written contained very few faults; I instantly inscribed "Bon" at the bottom of

the page, and returned it to her; she smiled, at first incredulously, then as if reassured, but did not lift her

eyes; she could look at me, it seemed, when perplexed and bewildered, but not when gratified; I thought that

SOME time elapsed before I again gave a lesson in the first class; the holiday of Whitsuntide occupied three

days, and on the fourth it was the turn of the second division to receive my instructions. As I made the transit

of the CARRE, I observed, as usual, the band of sewers surrounding Mdlle. Henri; there were only about a

dozen of them, but they made as much noise as might have sufficed for fifty; they seemed very little under

her control; three or four at once assailed her with importunate requirements; she looked harassed, she

demanded silence, but in vain. She saw me, and I read in her eye pain that a stranger should witness the

insubordination of her pupils; she seemed to entreat orderher prayers were useless; then I remarked that

she compressed her lips and contracted her brow; and her countenance, if I read it correctly, said"I have

done my best; I seem to merit blame notwithstanding; blame me then who will." I passed on; as I closed the

schoolroom door, I heard her say, suddenly and sharply, addressing one of the eldest and most turbulent of

"Amelie Mullenberg, ask me no question, and request of me no assistance, for a week to come; during that

The words were uttered with emphasisnay, with vehemenceand a comparative silence followed;

whether the calm was permanent, I know not; two doors now closed between me and the CARRE.

Next day was appropriated to the first class; on my arrival, I found the directress seated, as usual, in a chair

between the two estrades, and before her was standing Mdlle. Henri, in an attitude (as it seemed to me) of

somewhat reluctant attention. The directress was knitting and talking at the same time. Amidst the hum of a

large schoolroom, it was easy so to speak in the ear of one person, as to be heard by that person alone, and it

was thus Mdlle. Reuter parleyed with her teacher. The face of the latter was a little flushed, not a little

troubled; there was vexation in it, whence resulting I know not, for the directress looked very placid indeed;

she could not be scolding in such gentle whispers, and with so equable a mien; no, it was presently proved

that her discourse had been of the most friendly tendency, for I heard the closing words

Without reply, Mdlle. Henri turned away; dissatifaction was plainly evinced in her face, and a smile, slight

and brief, but bitter, distrustful, and, I thought, scornful, curled her lip as she took her place in the class; it

was a secret, involuntary smile, which lasted but a second; an air of depression succeeded, chased away

presently by one of attention and interest, when I gave the word for all the pupils to take their readingbooks.

In general I hated the readinglesson, it was such a torture to the ear to listen to their uncouth mouthing of

my native tongue, and no effort of example or precept on my part ever seemed to effect the slightest

improvement in their accent. Today, each in her appropriate key, lisped, stuttered, mumbled, and jabbered

as usual; about fifteen had racked me in turn, and my auricular nerve was expecting with resignation the

discords of the sixteenth, when a full, though low voice, read out, in clear correct English

"On his way to Perth, the king was met by a Highland woman, calling herself a prophetess; she stood at the

side of the ferry by which he was about to travel to the north, and cried with a loud voice, 'My lord the king,

if you pass this water you will never return again alive!'"(VIDE the HISTORY OF SCOTLAND).

I looked up in amazement; the voice was a voice of Albion; the accent was pure and silvery ; it only wanted

firmness, and assurance, to be the counterpart of what any welleducated lady in Essex or Middlesex might

have enounced, yet the speaker or reader was no other than Mdlle. Henri, in whose grave, joyless face I saw

no mark of consciousness that she had performed any extraordinary feat. No one else evinced surprise either.

Mdlle. Reuter knitted away assiduously; I was aware, however, that at the conclusion of the paragraph, she

had lifted her eyelid and honoured me with a glance sideways; she did not know the full excellency of the

teacher's style of reading, but she perceived that her accent was not that of the others, and wanted to discover

what I thought; I masked my visage with indifference, and ordered the next girl to proceed.

When the lesson was over, I took advantage of the confusion caused by breaking up, to approach Mdlle.

Henri; she was standing near the window and retired as I advanced; she thought I wanted to look out, and did

not imagine that I could have anything to say to her. I took her exercisebook; out of her hand; as I turned

Still the answer was "No." Here my eye, resting on the flyleaf of the book, saw written, "Frances Evan

My interrogations were cut short; I heard a little rustling behind me, and close at my back was the directress,

"Mademoiselle," said she, looking up and addressing the teacher, "Will you have the goodness to go and

stand in the corridor, while the young ladies are putting on their things, and try to keep some order?"

"What splendid weather!" observed the directress cheerfully, glancing at the same time from the window. I

assented and was withdrawing. "What of your new pupil, monsieur?" continued she, following my retreating

"Indeed I can hardly judge. She possesses a pretty good accent; of her real knowledge of the language I have

"And her natural capacity, monsieur? I have had my fears about that: can you relieve me by an assurance at

"I see no reason to doubt its average power, mademoiselle, but really I scarcely know her, and have not had

She still pursued me. "You will observe, monsieur, and tell me what you think; I could so much better rely on

your opinion than on my own; women cannot judge of these things as men can, and, excuse my pertinacity,

monsieur, but it is natural I should feel interested about this poor little girl (pauvre petite); she has scarcely

any relations, her own efforts are all she has to look to, her acquirements must be her sole fortune; her present

position has once been mine, or nearly so; it is then but natural I should sympathize with her; and sometimes

when I see the difficulty she has in managing pupils, I reel quite chagrined. I doubt not she does her best, her

intentions are excellent; but, monsieur, she wants tact and firmness. I have talked to her on the subject, but I

am not fluent, and probably did not express myself with clearness; she never appears to comprehend me.

Now, would you occasionally, when you see an opportunity, slip in a word of advice to her on the subject;

men have so much more influence than women havethey argue so much more logically than we do; and

you, monsieur, in particular, have so paramount a power of making yourself obeyed; a word of advice from

you could not but do her good; even if she were sullen and headstrong (which I hope she is not), she would

scarcely refuse to listen to you; for my own part, I can truly say that I never attend one of your lessons

without deriving benefit from witnessing your management of the pupils. The other masters are a constant

source of anxiety to me; they cannot impress the young ladies with sentiments of respect, nor restrain the

levity natural to youth: in you, monsieur, I feel the most absolute confidence; try then to put this poor child

into the way of controlling our giddy, highspirited Brabantoises. But, monsieur, I would add one word

more; don't alarm her AMOUR PROPRE; beware of inflicting a wound there. I reluctantly admit that in that

particular she is blameablysome would say ridiculouslysusceptible. I fear I have touched this sore point

During the greater part of this harangue my hand was on the lock of the outer door; I now turned it.

"Au revoir, mademoiselle," said I, and I escaped. I saw the directress's stock of words was yet far from

exhausted. She looked after me, she would fain have detained me longer. Her manner towards me had been

altered ever since I had begun to treat her with hardness and indifference: she almost cringed to me on every

occasion; she consulted my countenance incessantly, and beset me with innumerable little officious

attentions. Servility creates despotism. This slavish homage, instead of softening my heart, only pampered

whatever was stern and exacting in its mood. The very circumstance of her hovering round me like a

fascinated bird, seemed to transform me into a rigid pillar of stone; her flatteries irritated my scorn, her

blandishments confirmed my reserve. At times I wondered what she meant by giving herself such trouble to

win me, when the more profitable Pelet was already in her nets, and when, too, she was aware that I

possessed her secret, for I had not scrupled to tell her as much: but the fact is that as it was her nature to doubt

the reality and undervalue the worth of modesty, affection, disinterestednessto regard these qualities as

foibles of characterso it was equally her tendency to consider pride, hardness, selfishness, as proofs of

strength. She would trample on the neck of humility, she would kneel at the feet of disdain; she would meet

tenderness with secret contempt, indifference she would woo with ceaseless assiduities. Benevolence,

devotedness, enthusiasm, were her antipathies; for dissimulation and selfinterest she had a preferencethey

were real wisdom in her eyes; moral and physical degradation, mental and bodily inferiority, she regarded

with indulgence; they were foils capable of being turned to good account as setoffs for her own

endowments. To violence, injustice, tyranny, she succumbedthey were her natural masters; she had no

propensity to hate, no impulse to resist them; the indignation their behests awake in some hearts was

unknown in hers. From all this it resulted that the false and selfish called her wise, the vulgar and debased

termed her charitable, the insolent and unjust dubbed her amiable, the conscientious and benevolent generally

at first accepted as valid her claim to be considered one of themselves; but ere long the plating of pretension

wore off, the real material appeared below, and they laid her aside as a deception.

In the course of another fortnight I had seen sufficient of Frances Evans Henri, to enable me to form a more

definite opinion of her character. I found her possessed in a somewhat remarkable degree of at least two good

points, viz., perseverance and a sense of duty; I found she was really capable of applying to study, of

contending with difficulties. At first I offered her the same help which I had always found it necessary to

confer on the others; I began with unloosing for her each knotty point, but I soon discovered that such help

was regarded by my new pupil as degrading; she recoiled from it with a certain proud impatience. Hereupon I

appointed her long lessons, and left her to solve alone any perplexities they might present. She set to the task

with serious ardour, and having quickly accomplished one labour, eagerly demanded more. So much for her

perseverance; as to her sense of duty, it evinced itself thus: she liked to learn, but hated to teach; her progress

as a pupil depended upon herself, and I saw that on herself she could calculate with certainty; her success as a

teacher rested partly, perhaps chiefly, upon the will of others; it cost her a most painful effort to enter into

conflict with this foreign will, to endeavour to bend it into subjection to her own; for in what regarded people

in general the action of her will was impeded by many scruples; it was as unembarrassed as strong where her

own affairs were concerned, and to it she could at any time subject her inclination, if that inclination went

counter to her convictions of right; yet when called upon to wrestle with the propensities, the habits, the faults

of others, of children especially, who are deaf to reason, and, for the most part, insensate to persuasion, her

will sometimes almost refused to act; then came in the sense of duty, and forced the reluctant will into

operation. A wasteful expense of energy and labour was frequently the consequence; Frances toiled for and

with her pupils like a drudge, but it was long ere her conscientious exertions were rewarded by anything like

docility on their part, because they saw that they had power over her, inasmuch as by resisting her painful

attempts to convince, persuade, controlby forcing her to the employment of coercive measuresthey

could inflict upon her exquisite suffering. Human beingshuman children especiallyseldom deny

themselves the pleasure of exercising a power which they are conscious of possessing, even though that

power consist only in a capacity to make others wretched; a pupil whose sensations are duller than those of

his instructor, while his nerves are tougher and his bodily strength perhaps greater, has an immense advantage

over that instructor, and he will generally use it relentlessly, because the very young, very healthy, very

thoughtless, know neither how to sympathize nor how to spare. Frances, I fear, suffered much; a continual

weight seemed to oppress her spirits; I have said she did not live in the house, and whether in her own abode,

wherever that might be, she wore the same preoccupied, unsmiling, sorrowfully resolved air that always

One day I gave, as a devoir, the trite little anecdote of Alfred tending cakes in the herdsman's hut, to be

related with amplifications. A singular affair most of the pupils made of it; brevity was what they had chiefly

studied; the majority of the narratives were perfectly unintelligible; those of Sylvie and Leonie Ledru alone

pretended to anything like sense and connection. Eulalie, indeed, had hit, upon a clever expedient for at once

ensuring accuracy and saving trouble; she had obtained access somehow to an abridged history of England,

and had copied the anecdote out fair. I wrote on the margin of her production "Stupid and deceitful," and then

Last in the pile of singleleaved devoirs, I found one of several sheets, neatly written out and stitched

together; I knew the hand, and scarcely needed the evidence of the signature "Frances Evans Henri" to

Night was my usual time for correcting devoirs, and my own room the usual scene of such tasktask most

onerous hitherto; and it seemed strange to me to feel rising within me an incipient sense of interest, as I

snuffed the candle and addressed myself to the perusal of the poor teacher's manuscript.

"Now," thought I, "I shall see a glimpse of what she really is; I shall get an idea of the nature and extent of

her powers; not that she can be expected to express herself well in a foreign tongue, but still, if she has any

The narrative commenced by a description of a Saxon peasant's hut, situated within the confines of a great,

leafless, winter forest; it represented an evening in December; flakes of snow were falling, and the herdsman

foretold a heavy storm; he summoned his wife to aid him in collecting their flock, roaming far away on the

pastoral banks of the Thone; he warns her that it will be late ere they return. The good woman is reluctant to

quit her occupation of baking cakes for the evening meal; but acknowledging the primary importance of

securing the herds and flocks, she puts on her sheepskin mantle; and, addressing a stranger who rests half

reclined on a bed of rushes near the hearth, bids him mind the bread till her return.

"Take care, young man," she continues, "that you fasten the door well after us; and, above all, open to none in

our absence; whatever sound you hear, stir not, and look not out. The night will soon fall; this forest is most

wild and lonely; strange noises are often heard therein after sunset; wolves haunt these glades, and Danish

warriors infest the country; worse things are talked of; you might chance to hear, as it were, a child cry, and

on opening the door to afford it succour, a greet black bull, or a shadowy goblin dog, might rush over the

threshold; or, more awful still, if something flapped, as with wings, against the lattice, and then a raven or a

white dove flew in and settled on the hearth, such a visitor would be a sure sign of misfortune to the house;

Her husband calls her away, both depart. The stranger, left alone, listens awhile to the muffled snowwind,

"It is Christmas Eve," says he, "I mark the date; here I sit alone on a rude couch of rushes, sheltered by the

thatch of a herdsman's hut; I, whose inheritance was a kingdom, owe my night's harbourage to a poor serf;

my throne is usurped, my crown presses the brow of an invader; I have no friends; my troops wander broken

in the hills of Wales; reckless robbers spoil my country; my subjects lie prostrate, their breasts crushed by the

heel of the brutal Dane. Fate! thou hast done thy worst, and now thou standest before me resting thy hand on

thy blunted blade. Ay; I see thine eye confront mine and demand why I still live, why I still hope. Pagan

demon, I credit not thine omnipotence, and so cannot succumb to thy power. My God, whose Son, as on this

night, took on Him the form of man, and for man vouchsafed to suffer and bleed, controls thy hand, and

without His behest thou canst not strike a stroke. My God is sinless, eternal, allwisein Him is my trust;

and though stripped and crushed by theethough naked, desolate, void of resourceI do not despair, I

cannot despair: were the lance of Guthrum now wet with my blood, I should not despair. I watch, I toil, I

I need not continue the quotation; the whole devoir was in the same strain. There were errors of orthography,

there were foreign idioms, there were some faults of construction, there were verbs irregular transformed into

verbs regular; it was mostly made up, as the above example shows, of short and somewhat rude sentences,

and the style stood in great need of polish and sustained dignity; yet such as it was, I had hitherto seen

nothing like it in the course of my professorial experience. The girl's mind had conceived a picture of the hut,

of the two peasants, of the crownless king; she had imagined the wintry forest, she had recalled the old Saxon

ghostlegends, she had appreciated Alfred's courage under calamity, she had remembered his Christian

education, and had shown him, with the rooted confidence of those primitive days, relying on the scriptural

Jehovah for aid against the mythological Destiny. This she had done without a hint from me: I had given the

"I will find, or make, an opportunity of speaking to her," I said to myself as I rolled the devoir up; "I will

learn what she has of English in her besides the name of Frances Evans; she is no novice in the language, that

is evident, yet she told me she had neither been in England, nor taken lessons in English, nor lived in English

In the course of my next lesson, I made a report of the other devoirs, dealing out praise and blame in very

small retail parcels, according to my custom, for there was no use in blaming severely, and high encomiums

were rarely merited. I said nothing of Mdlle. Henri's exercise, and, spectacles on nose, I endeavoured to

decipher in her countenance her sentiments at the omission. I wanted to find out whether in her existed a

consciousness of her own talents. "If she thinks she did a clever thing in composing that devoir, she will now

look mortified," thought I. Grave as usual, almost sombre, was her face; as usual, her eyes were fastened on

the cahier open before her; there was something, I thought, of expectation in her attitude, as I concluded a

brief review of the last devoir, and when, casting it from me and rubbing my hands, I bade them take their

grammars, some slight change did pass over her air and mien, as though she now relinquished a faint prospect

of pleasant excitement; she had been waiting for something to be discussed in which she had a degree of

interest; the discussion was not to come on, so expectation sank back, shrunk and sad, but attention, promptly

filling up the void, repaired in a moment the transient collapse of feature; still, I felt, rather than saw, during

the whole course of the lesson, that a hope had been wrenched from her, and that if she did not show distress,

At four o'clock, when the bell rang and the room was in immediate tumult, instead of taking my hat and

starting from the estrade, I sat still a moment. I looked at Frances, she was putting her books into her cabas;

having fastened the button, she raised her head; encountering my eye, she made a quiet, respectful obeisance,

"Come here," said I, lifting my finger at the same time. She hesitated; she could not hear the words amidst the

uproar now pervading both schoolrooms; I repeated the sign; she approached; again she paused within half a

yard of the estrade, and looked shy, and still doubtful whether she had mistaken my meaning.

"Step up," I said, speaking with decision. It is the only way of dealing with diffident, easily embarrassed

characters, and with some slight manual aid I presently got her placed just where wanted her to be, that is,

between my desk and the window, where she was screened from the rush of the second division, and where

"Take a seat," I said, placing a tabouret; and I made her sit down. I knew what I was doing would be

considered a very strange thing, and, what was more, I did not care. Frances knew it also, and, I fear, by an

appearance of agitation and trembling, that she cared much. I drew from my pocket the rolledup devoir.

"This it, yours, I suppose?" said I, addressing her in English, for I now felt sure she could speak English.

"Yes," she answered distinctly; and as I unrolled it and laid it out flat on the desk before her with my hand

upon it, and a pencil in that hand, I saw her moved, and, as it were, kindled; her depression beamed as a cloud

"This devoir has numerous faults," said I. "It will take you some years of careful study before you are in a

condition to write English with absolute correctness. Attend: I will point out some principal defects." And I

went through it carefully, noting every error, and demonstrating why they were errors, and how the words or

phrases ought to have been written. In the course of this sobering process she became calm. I now went on:

"As to the substance of your devoir, Mdlle. Henri, it has surprised me; I perused it with pleasure, because I

saw in it some proofs of taste and fancy. Taste and fancy are not the highest gifts of the human mind, but

such as they are you possess themnot probably in a paramount degree, but in a degree beyond what the

majority can boast. You may then take courage; cultivate the faculties that God and nature have bestowed on

you, and do not fear in any crisis of suffering, under any pressure of injustice, to derive free and full

"Strength and rarity!" I repeated to myself; "ay, the words are probably true," for on looking up, I saw the sun

had dissevered its screening cloud, her countenance was transfigured, a smile shone in her eyesa smile

"I am glad you have been forced to discover so much of my nature; you need not so carefully moderate your

language. Do you think I am myself a stranger to myself? What you tell me in terms so qualified, I have

She did say this as plainly as a frank and flashing glance could, but in a moment the glow of her complexion,

the radiance of her aspect, had subsided; if strongly conscious of her talents, she was equally conscious of her

harassing defects, and the remembrance of these obliterated for a single second, now reviving with sudden

force, at once subdued the too vivid characters in which her sense of her powers had been expressed. So

quick was the revulsion of feeling, I had not time to cheek her triumph by reproof; ere I could contract my

"Thank you, sir," said she, rising. There was gratitude both in her voice and in the look with which she

accompanied it. It was time, indeed, for our conference to terminate; for, when I glanced around, behold all

the boarders (the dayscholars had departed) were congregated within a yard or two of my desk, and stood

staring with eyes and mouths wide open; the three maitresses formed a whispering knot in one corner, and,

close at my elbow, was the directress, sitting on a low chair, calmly clipping the tassels of her finished purse.

AFTER all I had profited but imperfectly by the opportunity I had so boldly achieved of speaking to Mdlle.

Henri; it was my intention to ask her how she came to be possessed of two English baptismal names, Frances

and Evans, in addition to her French surname, also whence she derived her good accent. I had forgotten both

points, or, rather, our colloquy had been so brief that I had not had time to bring them forward; moreover, I

had not half tested her powers of speaking English; all I had drawn from her in that language were the words

"Yes," and "Thank you, sir." "No matter," I reflected. "What has been left incomplete now, shall be finished

another day." Nor did I fail to keep the promise thus made to myself. It was difficult to get even a few words

of particular conversation with one pupil among so many; but, according to the old proverb, "Where there is a

will, there is a way;" and again and again I managed to find an opportunity for exchanging a few words with

Mdlle. Henri, regardless that envy stared and detraction whispered whenever I approached her.

"Your book an instant." Such was the mode in which I often began these brief dialogues; the time was always

just at the conclusion of the lesson; and motioning to her to rise, I installed myself in her place, allowing her

to stand deferentially at my side; for I esteemed it wise and right in her case to enforce strictly all forms

ordinarily in use between master and pupil; the rather because I perceived that in proportion as my manner

grew austere and magisterial, hers became easy and selfpossessedan odd contradiction, doubtless, to the

"A pencil," said I, holding out my hand without looking at her. (I am now about to sketch a brief report of the

first of these conferences.) She gave me one, and while I underlined some errors in a grammatical exercise

"Just so; and is it the custom of the Genevese to give their children English appellatives?"

"But" (slowly and with embarrassment) "my parents were not all the two Genevese."

"Since your mother is an Englishwoman, why do you not speak English with more facility?"

"And you do homage to her memory by forgetting her language. Have the goodness to put French out of your

"You had the habitude formerly, I suppose? Now answer me in your mother tongue."

"For which, mademoiselle, if you were a child I should certainly devise some slight punishment; at your

"Well, nineteen is a mature age, and, having attained it, you ought to be so solicitous for your own

improvement, that it should not be needful for a master to remind you twice of the expediency of your

To this wise speech I received no answer; and, when I looked up, my pupil was smiling to herself a

muchmeaning, though not very gay smile; it seemed to say, "He talks of he knows not what:" it said this so

plainly, that I determined to request information on the point concerning which my ignorance seemed to be

"Oh, certainly, not much; but you are a teacher, are you not, as well as a pupil?"

"Why do you pursue it? Why do you not rather teach history, geography, grammar, even arithmetic?"

"Is monsieur certain that I am myself thoroughly acquainted with these studies?"

"Indeed! What then were your friendswhat was your aunt about? She is very much to blame."

"No monsieur, nomy aunt is goodshe is not to blameshe does what she can; she lodges and nourishes

me" (I report Mdlle. Henri's phrases literally, and it was thus she translated from the French). "She is not rich;

she has only an annuity of twelve hundred francs, and it would be impossible for her to send me to school."

"Rather," thought I to myself on hearing this, but I continued, in the dogmatical tone I had adopted:

"It is sad, however, that you should be brought up in ignorance of the most ordinary branches of education;

had you known something of history and grammar you might, by degrees, have relinquished your

"How? By a knowledge of English alone? That will not suffice; no respectable family will receive a

governess whose whole stock of knowledge consists in a familiarity with one foreign language."

"Yes, yes, you can work with Berlin wools, and embroider handkerchiefs and collarsthat will do little for

Mdlle. Henri's lips were unclosed to answer, but she checked herself, as thinking the discussion had been

"Speak," I continued, impatiently; "I never like the appearance of acquiescence when the reality is not there;

"Monsieur, I have had many lessons both in grammar, history, geography, and arithmetic. I have gone

"Bravo! but how did you manage it, since your aunt could not afford lo send you to school?"

"Truly! And now, mademoiselle, it will be a good exercise for you to explain to me in English how such a

"Monsieur, I begged my aunt to have me taught lacemending soon after we came to Brussels, because I

knew it was a METIER, a trade which was easily learnt, and by which I could earn some money very soon. I

learnt it in a few days, and I quickly got work, for all the Brussels ladies have old lacevery precious

which must be mended all the times it is washed. I earned money a little, and this money I grave for

lessons in the studies I have mentioned; some of it I spent in buying books, English books especially; soon I

shall try to find a place of governess, or schoolteacher, when I can write and speak English well; but it will

be difficult, because those who know I have been a lacemender will despise me, as the pupils here despise

The words were pronounced emphatically. She said "England" as you might suppose an Israelite of Moses'

"Mademoiselle Henri, je crois qu'il va pleuvoir; vous feriez bien, ma bonne amie, de retourner chez vous tout

In silence, without a word of thanks for this officious warning, Mdlle. Henri collected her books; she moved

to me respectfully, endeavoured to move to her superior, though the endeavour was almost a failure, for her

Where there is one grain of perseverance or wilfulness in the composition, trifling obstacles are ever known

rather to stimulate than discourage. Mdlle. Reuter might as well have spared herself the trouble of giving that

intimation about the weather (bytheby her prediction was falsified by the eventit did not rain that

evening). At the close of the next lesson I was again at Mdlle. Henri's desk. Thus did I accost her:

Accustomed by this time to the calculated abruptness of my manner, it no longer discomposed or surprised

her, and she answered with only so much of hesitation as was rendered inevitable by the difficulty she

experienced in improvising the translation of her thoughts from French to English.

"England is something unique, as I have heard and read; my idea of it is vague, and I want to go there to

"Hum! How much of England do you suppose you could see if you went there in the capacity of a teacher? A

strange notion you must have of getting a clear and definite idea of a country! All you could see of Great

Britain would be the interior of a school, or at most of one or two private dwellings."

"Indisputably; but what then? What would be the value of observations made on a scale so narrow?"

"Monsieur, might not one learn something by analogy? Anechantillonaa sample often serves to give

an idea of the whole; besides, narrow and wide are words comparative, are they not? All my life would

perhaps seem narrow in your eyesall the life of athat little animal subterraneanune taupecomment

"Why, monsieur, it is just so. In Switzerland I have done but little, learnt but little, and seen but little; my life

there was in a circle; I walked the same round every day; I could not get out of it; had I restedremained

there even till my death, I should never have enlarged it, because I am poor and not skilful, I have not great

acquirements; when I was quite tired of this round, I begged my aunt to go to Brussels; my existence is no

larger here, because I am no richer or higher; I walk in as narrow a limit, but the scene is changed; it would

change again if I went to England. I knew something of the bourgeois of Geneva, now I know something of

the bourgeois of Brussels; if I went to London, I would know something of the bourgeois of London. Can you

"I see, I seenow let us advert to another subject; you propose to devote your life to teaching, and you are a

A flush of painful confusion was the result of this harsh remark; she bent her head to the desk, but soon

"Monsieur, I am not a skilful teacher, it is true, but practice improves; besides, I work under difficulties; here

I only teach sewing, I can show no power in sewing, no superiorityit is a subordinate art; then I have no

associates in this house, I am isolated; I am too a heretic, which deprives me of influence."

"And in England you would be a foreigner; that too would deprive you of influence, and would effectually

separate you from all round you; in England you would have as few connections, as little importance as you

"But I should be learning something; for the rest, there are probably difficulties for such as I everywhere, and

if I must contend, and perhaps: be conquered, I would rather submit to English pride than to Flemish

She stoppednot evidently from any difficulty in finding words to express herself, but because discretion

"Besides, monsieur, I long to live once more among Protestants; they are more honest than Catholics; a

Romish school is a building with porous walls, a hollow floor, a false ceiling; every room in this house,

monsieur, has eyeholes and earholes, and what the house is, the inhabitants are, very treacherous; they all

think it lawful to tell lies; they all call it politeness to profess friendship where they feel hatred."

"All?" said I; "you mean the pupilsthe mere children inexperienced, giddy things, who have not learnt

"On the contrary, monsieurthe children are the most sincere; they have not yet had time to become

accomplished in duplicity; they will tell lies, but they do it inartificially, and you know they are lying; but the

"Mdlle. HenriMdlle. Reuter vous prie de vouloir bien conduire la petite de Dorlodot chez elle, elle vous

attend dans le cabinet de Rosalie la portierec'est que sa bonne n'est pas venue la cherchervoyezvous."

"Eh bien! estce que je suis sa bonnemoi?" demanded Mdlle. Henri; then smiling, with that same bitter,

derisive smile I had seen on her lips once before, she hastily rose and made her exit.

THE young AngloSwiss evidently derived both pleasure and profit from the study of her mothertongue. In

teaching her I did not, of course, confine myself to the ordinary school routine; I made instruction in English

a channel for instruction in literature. I prescribed to her a course of reading; she had a little selection of

English classics, a few of which had been left her by her mother, and the others she had purchased with her

own pennyfee. I lent her some more modern works; all these she read with avidity, giving me, in writing, a

clear summary of each work when she had perused it. Composition, too, she delighted in. Such occupation

seemed the very breath of her nostrils, and soon her improved productions wrung from me the avowal that

those qualities in her I had termed taste and fancy ought rather to have been denominated judgment and

imagination. When I intimated so much, which I did as usual in dry and stinted phrase, I looked for the

radiant and exulting smile my one word of eulogy had elicited before; but Frances coloured. If she did smile,

it was very softly and shyly; and instead of looking up to me with a conquering glance, her eyes rested on my

hand, which, stretched over her shoulder, was writing some directions with a pencil on the margin of her

She made no answer, and, I thought, looked a little sad. I divined her thoughts, and should much have liked to

have responded to them, had it been expedient so to do. She was not now very ambitious of my

admirationnot eagerly desirous of dazzling me; a little affectionever so littlepleased her better than

all the panegyrics in the world. Feeling this, I stood a good while behind her, writing on the margin of her

book. I could hardly quit my station or relinquish my occupation; something retained me bending there, my

head very near hers, and my hand near hers too; but the margin of a copybook is not an illimitable

spaceso, doubtless, the directress thought; and she took occasion to walk past in order to ascertain by what

art I prolonged so disproportionately the period necessary for filling it. I was obliged to go. Distasteful

Frances did not become pale or feeble in consequence of her sedentary employment; perhaps the stimulus it

communicated to her mind counterbalanced the inaction it imposed on her body. She changed, indeed,

changed obviously and rapidly; but it was for the better. When I first saw her, her countenance was sunless,

her complexion colourless; she looked like one who had no source of enjoyment, no store of bliss anywhere

in the world; now the cloud had passed from her mien, leaving space for the dawn of hope and interest, and

those feelings rose like a clear morning, animating what had been depressed, tinting what had been pale. Her

eyes, whose colour I had not at first known, so dim were they with repressed tears, so shadowed with

ceaseless dejection, now, lit by a ray of the sunshine that cheered her heart, revealed irids of bright

hazelirids large and full, screened with long lashes; and pupils instinct with fire. That look of wan

emaciation which anxiety or low spirits often communicates to a thoughtful, thin face, rather long than round,

having vanished from hers; a clearness of skin almost bloom, and a plumpness almost embonpoint, softened

the decided lines of her features. Her figure shared in this beneficial change; it became rounder, and as the

harmony of her form was complete and her stature of the graceful middle height, one did not regret (or at

least I did not regret) the absence of confirmed fulness, in contours, still slight, though compact, elegant,

flexiblethe exquisite turning of waist, wrist, hand, foot, and ankle satisfied completely my notions of

symmetry, and allowed a lightness and freedom of movement which corresponded with my ideas of grace.

Thus improved, thus wakened to life, Mdlle. Henri began to take a new footing in the school; her mental

power, manifested gradually but steadily, ere long extorted recognition even from the envious; and when the

young and healthy saw that she could smile brightly, converse gaily, move with vivacity and alertness, they

acknowledged in her a sisterhood of youth and health, and tolerated her as of their kind accordingly.

To speak truth, I watched this change much as a gardener watches the growth of a precious plant, and I

contributed to it too, even as the said gardener contributes to the development of his favourite. To me it was

not difficult to discover how I could best foster my pupil, cherish her starved feelings, and induce the outward

manifestation of that inward vigour which sunless drought and blighting blast had hitherto forbidden to

expand. Constancy of attentiona kindness as mute as watchful, always standing by her, cloaked in the

rough garb of austerity, and making its real nature known only by a rare glance of interest, or a cordial and

gentle word; real respect masked with seeming imperiousness, directing, urging her actions, yet helping her

too, and that with devoted care: these were the means I used, for these means best suited Frances' feelings, as

The benefits of my system became apparent also in her altered demeanour as a teacher; she now took her

place amongst her pupils with an air of spirit and firmness which assured them at once that she meant to be

obeyedand obeyed she was. They felt they had lost their power over her. If any girl had rebelled, she

would no longer have taken her rebellion to heart; she possessed a source of comfort they could not drain, a

pillar of support they could not overthrow: formerly, when insulted, she wept; now, she smiled.

The public reading of one of her devoirs achieved the revelation of her talents to all and sundry; I remember

the subjectit was an emigrant's letter to his friends at home. It opened with simplicity; some natural and

graphic touches disclosed to the reader the scene of virgin forest and great, NewWorld river barren of sail

and flagamidst which the epistle was supposed to be indited. The difficulties and dangers that attend a

settler's life, were hinted at; and in the few words said on that subject, Mdlle. Henri failed not to render

audible the voice of resolve, patience, endeavour. The disasters which had driven him from his native country

were alluded to; stainless honour, inflexible independence, indestructible selfrespect there took the word.

Past days were spoken of; the grief of parting, the regrets of absence, were touched upon; feeling, forcible

and fine, breathed eloquent in every period. At the close, consolation was suggested; religious faith became

The devoir was powerfully written in language at once chaste and choice, in a style nerved with vigour and

Mdlle. Reuter was quite sufficiently acquainted with English to understand it when read or spoken in her

presence, though she could neither speak nor write it herself. During the perusal of this devoir, she sat

placidly busy, her eyes and fingers occupied with the formation of a "riviere" or openwork hem round a

cambric handkerchief; she said nothing, and her face and forehead, clothed with a mask of purely negative

expression, were as blank of comment as her lips. As neither surprise, pleasure, approbation, nor interest were

evinced in her countenance, so no more were disdain, envy, annoyance, weariness; if that inscrutable mien

As soon as I had done, a hum rose; several of the pupils, pressing round Mdlle. Henri, began to beset her with

"Young ladies, such of you as have cloaks and umbrellas will hasten to return home before the shower

becomes heavier" (it was raining a little), "the remainder will wait till their respective servants arrive to fetch

"Monsieur, a word," said Mdlle. Reuter, stepping on to the estrade, and signifying, by a movement of the

hand, that she wished me to relinquish, for an instant, the castor I had clutched.

"Monsieur, it is of course an excellent plan to encourage effort in young people by making conspicuous the

progress of any particularly industrious pupil; but do you not think that in the present instance, Mdlle. Henri

can hardly be considered as a concurrent with the other pupils? She is older than most of them, and has had

advantages of an exclusive nature for acquiring a knowledge of English; on the other hand, her sphere of life

is somewhat beneath theirs; under these circumstances, a public distinction, conferred upon Mdlle. Henri,

may be the means of suggesting comparisons, and exciting feelings such as would be far from advantageous

to the individual forming their object. The interest I take in Mdlle. Henri's real welfare makes me desirous of

screening her from annoyances of this sort; besides, monsieur, as I have before hinted to you, the sentiment of

AMOURPROPRE has a somewhat marked preponderance in her character; celebrity has a tendency to

foster this sentiment, and in her it should be rather repressedshe rather needs keeping down than bringing

forward; and then I think, monsieurit appears to me that ambition, LITERARY ambition especially, is not

a feeling to be cherished in the mind of a woman: would not Mdlle. Henri be much safer and happier if taught

to believe that in the quiet discharge of social duties consists her real vocation, than if stimulated to aspire

after applause and publicity? She may never marry; scanty as are her resources, obscure as are her

connections, uncertain as is her health (for I think her consumptive, her mother died of that complaint), it is

more than probable she never will. I do not see how she can rise to a position, whence such a step would be

possible; but even in celibacy it would be better for her to retain the character and habits of a respectable

"Indisputably, mademoiselle," was my answer. "Your opinion admits of no doubt;" and, fearful of the

harangue being renewed, I retreated under cover of that cordial sentence of assent.

At the date of a fortnight after the little incident noted above, I find it recorded in my diary that a hiatus

occurred in Mdlle. Henri's usually regular attendance in class. The first day or two I wondered at her absence,

but did not like to ask an explanation of it; I thought indeed some chance word might be dropped which

would afford me the information I wished to obtain, without my running the risk of exciting silly smiles and

gossiping whispers by demanding it. But when a week passed and the seat at the desk near the door still

remained vacant, and when no allusion was made to the circumstance by any individual of the classwhen,

on the contrary, I found that all observed a marked silence on the pointI determined, COUTE QUI

COUTE, to break the ice of this silly reserve. I selected Sylvie as my informant, because from her I knew that

I should at least get a sensible answer, unaccompanied by wriggle, titter, or other flourish of folly.

"Ou donc est Mdlle. Henri?" I said one day as I returned an exercisebook I had been examining.

"Oui, oui, monsieur, mademoiselle la directrice nous l'a dit ellememe il y a deux ou trois jours."

And I could pursue my inquiries no further; time, place, and circumstances forbade my adding another word.

I could neither comment on what had been said, nor demand further particulars. A question as to the reason of

the teacher's departure, as to whether it had been voluntary or otherwise, was indeed on my lips, but I

suppressed itthere were listeners all round. An hour after, in passing Sylvie in the corridor as she was

"Sylvie, do you know Mdlle. Henri's address? I have some books of hers," I added carelessly, "and I should

"No, monsieur," replied Sylvie; "but perhaps Rosalie, the portress, will be able to give it you."

Rosalie's cabinet was just at hand; I stepped in and repeated the inquiry. Rosaliea smart French

grisettelooked up from her work with a knowing smile, precisely the sort of smile I had been so desirous to

avoid exciting. Her answer was prepared; she knew nothing whatever of Mdlle. Henri's addresshad never

known it. Turning from her with impatiencefor I believed she lied and was hired to lieI almost knocked

down some one who had been standing at my back; it was the directress. My abrupt movement made her

recoil two or three steps. I was obliged to apologize, which I did more concisely than politely. No man likes

to be dogged, and in the very irritable mood in which I then was the sight of Mdlle. Reuter thoroughly

incensed me. At the moment I turned her countenance looked hard, dark, and inquisitive; her eyes were bent

upon me with an expression of almost hungry curiosity. I had scarcely caught this phase of physiognomy ere

it had vanished; a bland smile played on her features; my harsh apology was received with goodhumoured

"Oh, don't mention it, monsieur; you only touched my hair with your elbow; it is no worse, only a little

dishevelled." She shook it back, and passing her fingers through her curls, loosened them into more numerous

Rosalie, I was coming to tell you to go instantly and close the windows of the salon; the wind is rising, and

Rosalie departed. "Now," thought I, "this will not do; Mdlle. Reuter thinks her meanness in eavesdropping

is screened by her art in devising a pretext, whereas the muslin curtains she speaks of are not more

transparent than this same pretext." An impulse came over me to thrust the flimsy screen aside, and confront

her craft boldly with a word or two of plain truth. "The roughshod foot treads most firmly on slippery

"Ah, I wished to have a little conversation with you, monsieur," replied the directress with the most natural

and affable air in the world; "but we cannot talk quietly here; will Monsieur step into the garden a minute?"

And she preceded me, stepping out through the glassdoor I have before mentioned.

"There," said she, when we had reached the centre of the middle alley, and when the foliage of shrubs and

trees, now in their summer pride, closing behind end around us, shut out the view of the house, and thus

imparted a sense of seclusion even to this little plot of ground in the very core of a capital.

"There, one feels quiet and free when there are only peartrees and rosebushes about one; I dare say you,

like me, monsieur, are sometimes tired of being eternally in the midst of life; of having human faces always

round you, human eyes always upon you, human voices always in your ear. I am sure I often wish intensely

for liberty to spend a whole month in the country at some little farmhouse, bien gentille, bien propre, tout

entouree de champs et de bois; quelle vie charmante que la vie champetre! N'estce pas, monsieur?"

"Que le vent est bon et frais!" continued the directress; and she was right there, for it was a south wind, soft

and sweet. I carried my hat in my hand, and this gentle breeze, passing through my hair, soothed my temples

like balm. Its refreshing effect, however, penetrated no deeper than the mere surface of the frame; for as I

walked by the side of Mdlle. Reuter, my heart was still hot within me, and while I was musing the fire

"Ah, true! I meant to have named the subject to you some days ago, but my time is so completely taken up, I

cannot do half the things I wish: have you never experienced what it is, monsieur, to find the day too short by

"Not often. Mdlle. Henri's departure was not voluntary, I presume? If it had been, she would certainly have

"Oh, did she not tell you? that was strange; for my part, I never thought of adverting to the subject; when one

has so many things to attend to, one is apt to forget little incidents that are not of primary importance."

"Dismission? Ah! she was not dismissed; I can say with truth, monsieur, that since I became the head of this

"Many; I have found it necessary to change frequentlya change of instructors is often beneficial to the

interests of a school; it gives life and variety to the proceedings; it amuses the pupils, and suggests to the

"Yet when you are tired of a professor or maitresse, you scruple to dismiss them?"

"No need to have recourse to such extreme measures, I assure you. Allons, monsieur le

professeurasseyonsnous; je vais vous donner une petite lecon dans votre etat d'instituteur." (I wish I

might write all she said to me in Frenchit loses sadly by being translated into English.) We had now

reached THE gardenchair; the directress sat down, and signed to me to sit by her, but I only rested my knee

on the seat, and stood leaning my head and arm against the embowering branch of a huge laburnum, whose

golden flowers, blent with the dusky green leaves of a lilacbush, formed a mixed arch of shade and sunshine

over the retreat. Mdlle. Reuter sat silent a moment; some novel movements were evidently working in her

mind, and they showed their nature on her astute brow; she was meditating some CHEF D'OEUVRE of

policy. Convinced by several months' experience that the affectation of virtues she did not possess was

unavailing to ensnare meaware that I had read her real nature, and would believe nothing of the character

she gave out as being hersshe had determined, at last, to try a new key, and see if the lock of my heart

would yield to that; a little audacity, a word of truth, a glimpse of the real. "Yes, I will try," was her inward

resolve; and then her blue eye glittered upon meit did not flashnothing of flame ever kindled in its

"I have no wish to usurp Pelet's place," I answered, for I had got the habit of speaking to her bluntlya habit

begun in anger, but continued because I saw that, instead of offending, it fascinated her. She cast down her

eyes, and drooped her eyelids; she sighed uneasily; she turned with an anxious gesture, as if she would give

me the idea of a bird that flutters in its cage, and would fain fly from its jail and jailer, and seek its natural

"Ah!" she exclaimed, recovering herself, "you are so young, so frank and fearless, so talented, so impatient of

imbecility, so disdainful of vulgarity, you need a lesson; here it is then: far more is to be done in this world by

dexterity than by strength; but, perhaps, you knew that before, for there is delicacy as well as power in your

"Go on." said I; and I could hardly help smiling, the flattery was so piquant, so finely seasoned. She caught

the prohibited smile, though I passed my hand over my month to conceal it; and again she made room for me

to sit beside her. I shook my head, though temptation penetrated to my senses at the moment, and once more I

"Well, then, if ever you are at the head of a large establishment, dismiss nobody. To speak truth, monsieur

(and to you I will speak truth), I despise people who are always making rows, blustering, sending off one to

the right, and another to the left, urging and hurrying circumstances. I'll tell you what I like best to do,

monsieur, shall I?" She looked up again; she had compounded her glance well this timemuch archness,

more deference, a spicy dash of coquetry, an unveiled consciousness of capacity. I nodded; she treated me

"I like, monsieur, to take my knitting in my hands, and to sit quietly down in my chair; circumstances defile

past me; I watch their march; so long as they follow the course I wish, I say nothing, and do nothing; I don't

clap my hands, and cry out 'Bravo! How lucky I am!' to attract the attention and envy of my neighboursI

am merely passive; but when events fall out ill when circumstances become adverseI watch very

vigilantly; I knit on still, and still I hold my tongue; but every now and then, monsieur, I just put my toe

outsoand give the rebellious circumstance a little secret push, without noise, which sends it the way I

wish, and I am successful after all, and nobody has seen my expedient. So, when teachers or masters become

troublesome and inefficientwhen, in short, the interests of the school would suffer from their retaining

their placesI mind my knitting, events progress, circumstances glide past; I see one which, if pushed ever

so little awry, will render untenable the post I wish to have vacatedthe deed is donethe stumblingblock

removedand no one saw me: I have not made an enemy, I am rid of an incumbrance."

A moment since, and I thought her alluring; this speech concluded, I looked on her with distaste. "Just like

you," was my cold answer. "And in this way you have ousted Mdlle. Henri? You wanted her office, therefore

"Not at all, monsieur, I was merely anxious about Mdlle. Henri's health; no, your moral sight is clear and

piercing, but there you have failed to discover the truth. I tookI have always taken a real interest in Mdlle.

Henri's welfare; I did not like her going out in all weathers; I thought it would be more advantageous for her

to obtain a permanent situation; besides, I considered her now qualified to do something more than teach

sewing. I reasoned with her; left the decision to herself; she saw the correctness of my views, and adopted

"Excellent! and now, mademoiselle, you will have the goodness to give me her address."

"Her address!" and a sombre and stony change came over the mien of the directress. "Her address?

Ah?wellI wish I could oblige you, monsieur, but I cannot, and I will tell you why; whenever I myself

asked her for her address, she always evaded the inquiry. I thoughtI may be wrongbut I THOUGHT her

motive for doing so, was a natural, though mistaken reluctance to introduce me to some, probably, very poor

abode; her means were narrow, her origin obscure; she lives somewhere, doubtless, in the 'basse ville.'"

"I'll not lose sight of my best pupil yet," said I, "though she were born of beggars and lodged in a cellar; for

the rest, it is absurd to make a bugbear of her origin to meI happen to know that she was a Swiss pastor's

daughter, neither more nor less; and, as to her narrow means, I care nothing for the poverty of her purse so

"Your sentiments are perfectly noble, monsieur," said the directress, affecting to suppress a yawn; her

sprightliness was now extinct, her temporary candour shut up; the little, redcoloured, piraticallooking

pennon of audacity she had allowed to float a minute in the air, was furled, and the broad, soberhued flag of

dissimulation again hung low over the citadel. I did not like her thus, so I cut short the TETEATETE and

NOVELISTS should never allow themselves to weary of the study of real life. If they observed this duty

conscientiously, they would give us fewer pictures chequered with vivid contrasts of light and shade; they

would seldom elevate their heroes and heroines to the heights of rapturestill seldomer sink them to the

depths of despair; for if we rarely taste the fulness of joy in this life, we yet more rarely savour the acrid

bitterness of hopeless anguish; unless, indeed, we have plunged like beasts into sensual indulgence, abused,

strained, stimulated, again overstrained, and, at last, destroyed our faculties for enjoyment; then, truly, we

may find ourselves without support, robbed of hope. Our agony is great, and how can it end? We have broken

the spring of our powers; life must be all sufferingtoo feeble to conceive faithdeath must be

darknessGod, spirits, religion can have no place in our collapsed minds, where linger only hideous and

polluting recollections of vice; and time brings us on to the brink of the grave, and dissolution flings us ina

rag eaten through and through with disease, wrung together with pain, stamped into the churchyard sod by the

But the man of regular life and rational mind never despairs. He loses his propertyit is a blowhe

staggers a moment; then, his energies, roused by the smart, are at work to seek a remedy; activity soon

mitigates regret. Sickness affects him; he takes patienceendures what he cannot cure. Acute pain racks

him; his writhing limbs know not where to find rest; he leans on Hope's anchors. Death takes from him what

he loves; roots up, and tears violently away the stem round which his affections were twineda dark, dismal

time, a frightful wrenchbut some morning Religion looks into his desolate house with sunrise, and says,

that in another world, another life, he shall meet his kindred again. She speaks of that world as a place

unsullied by sinof that life, as an era unembittered by suffering; she mightily strengthens her consolation

by connecting with it two ideas which mortals cannot comprehend, but on which they love to

reposeEternity, Immortality; and the mind of the mourner, being filled with an image, faint yet glorious, of

heavenly hills all light and peaceof a spirit resting there in blissof a day when his spirit shall also alight

there, free and disembodiedof a reunion perfected by love, purified from fearhe takes couragegoes

out to encounter the necessities and discharge the duties of life; and, though sadness may never lift her burden

Welland what suggested all this? and what is the inference to be drawn therefrom? What suggested it, is

the circumstance of my best pupilmy treasurebeing snatched from my hands, and put away out of my

reach; the inference to be drawn from it isthat, being a steady, reasonable man, I did not allow the

resentment, disappointment, and grief, engendered in my mind by this evil chance, to grow there to any

monstrous size; nor did I allow them to monopolize the whole space of my heart; I pent them, on the

contrary, in one strait and secret nook. In the daytime, too, when I was about my duties, I put them on the

silent system; and it was only after I had closed the door of my chamber at night that I somewhat relaxed my

severity towards these morose nurslings, and allowed vent to their language of murmurs; then, in revenge,

they sat on my pillow, haunted my bed, and kept me awake with their long, midnight cry.

A week passed. I had said nothing more to Mdlle. Reuter. I had been calm in my demeanour to her, though

stony cold and hard. When I looked at her, it was with the glance fitting to be bestowed on one who I knew

had consulted jealousy as an adviser, and employed treachery as an instrumentthe glance of quiet disdain

and rooted distrust. On Saturday evening, ere I left the house, I stept into the SALLEAMANGER, where

she was sitting alone, and, placing myself before her, I asked, with the same tranquil tone and manner that I

"Mademoiselle, will you have the goodness to give me the address of Frances Evans Henri?"

A little surprised, but not disconcerted, she smilingly disclaimed any knowledge of that address, adding,

"Monsieur has perhaps forgotten that I explained all about that circumstance beforea week ago?"

"Mademoiselle," I continued, "you would greatly oblige me by directing me to that young person's abode."

She seemed somewhat puzzled; and, at last, looking up with an admirably counterfeited air of naivete, she

Still avoiding to give her a direct answer, I said, "It is not then your intention, mademoiselle, to oblige me in

"Very well; I understand you perfectly, mademoiselle, and now I have only two or three words to say. This is

the last week in July; in another month the vacation will commence I have the goodness to avail yourself of

the leisure it will afford you to look out for another English masterat the close of August, I shall be under

I did not wait for her comments on this announcement, but bowed and immediately withdrew.

That same evening, soon after dinner, a servant brought me a small packet; it was directed in a hand I knew,

but had not hoped so soon to see again; being in my own apartment and alone, there was nothing to prevent

my immediately opening it; it contained four fivefranc pieces, and a note in English.

"MONSIEUR, "I came to Mdlle. Reuter's house yesterday, at the time when I knew you would be just about

finishing your lesson, and I asked if I might go into the schoolroom and speak to you. Mdlle. Reuter came out

and said you were already gone; it had not yet struck four, so I thought she must be mistaken, but concluded

it would be vain to call another day on the same errand. In one sense a note will do as wellit will wrap up

the 20 francs, the price of the lessons I have received from you; and if it will not fully express the thanks I

owe you in additionif it will not bid you goodbye as I could wish to have doneif it will not tell you, as

I long to do, how sorry I am that I shall probably never see you morewhy, spoken words would hardly be

more adequate to the task. Had I seen you, I should probably have stammered out something feeble and

unsatisfactorysomething belying my feelings rather than explaining them; so it is perhaps as well that I

was denied admission to your presence. You often remarked, monsieur, that my devoirs dwelt a great deal on

fortitude in bearing griefyou said I introduced that theme too often: I find indeed that it is much easier to

write about a severe duty than to perform it, for I am oppressed when I see and feel to what a reverse fate has

condemned me; you were kind to me, monsieurvery kind; I am afflictedI am heartbroken to be quite

separated from you; soon I shall have no friend on earth. But it is useless troubling you with my distresses.

I put up the note in my pocketbook. I slipped the fivefranc pieces into my pursethen I took a turn

"Mdlle. Reuter talked about her poverty," said I, "and she is poor; yet she pays her debts and more. I have not

yet given her a quarter's lessons, and she has sent me a quarter's due. I wonder of what she deprived herself to

scrape together the twenty francsI wonder what sort of a place she has to live in, and what sort of a woman

her aunt is, and whether she is likely to get employment to supply the place she has lost. No doubt she will

have to trudge about long enough from school to school, to inquire here, and apply therebe rejected in this

place, disappointed in that. Many an evening she'll go to her bed tired and unsuccessful. And the directress

would not let her in to bid me goodbye? I might not have the chance of standing with her for a few minutes

at a window in the schoolroom and exchanging some halfdozen of sentencesgetting to know where she

lived putting matters in train for having all things arranged to my mind? No address on the note"I

continued, drawing it again from the pocketbook and examining it on each side of the two leaves: "women

are women, that is certain, and always do business like women; men mechanically put a date and address to

their communications. And these fivefranc pieces?"(I hauled them forth from my purse)"if she had

offered me them herself instead of tying them up with a thread of green silk in a kind of Lilliputian packet, I

could have thrust them back into her little hand, and shut up the small, taper fingers over themsoand

compelled her shame, her pride, her shyness, all to yield to a little bit of determined Willnow where is she?

"No matter," said I to myself, as I again closed the door. "No matterI'll seek her through Brussels."

And I did. I sought her day by day whenever I had a moment's leisure, for four weeks; I sought her on

Sundays all day long; I sought her on the Boulevards, in the Allee Verte, in the Park; I sought her in Ste.

Gudule and St. Jacques; I sought her in the two Protestant chapels; I attended these latter at the German,

French, and English services, not doubting that I should meet her at one of them. All my researches were

absolutely fruitless; my security on the last point was proved by the event to be equally groundless with my

other calculations. I stood at the door of each chapel after the service, and waited till every individual had

come out, scrutinizing every gown draping a slender form, peering under every bonnet covering a young

head. In vain; I saw girlish figures pass me, drawing their black scarfs over their sloping shoulders, but none

of them had the exact turn and air of Mdlle. Henri's; I saw pale and thoughtful faces "encadrees" in bands of

brown hair, but I never found her forehead, her eyes, her eyebrows. All the features of all the faces I met

seemed frittered away, because my eye failed to recognize the peculiarities it was bent upon; an ample space

of brow and a large, dark, and serious eye, with a fine but decided line of eyebrow traced above.

"She has probably left Brusselsperhaps is gone to England, as she said she would," muttered I inwardly, as

on the afternoon of the fourth Sunday, I turned from the door of the chapelroyal which the doorkeeper had

just closed and locked, and followed in the wake of the last of the congregation, now dispersed and dispersing

over the square. I had soon outwalked the couples of English gentlemen and ladies. (Gracious goodness! why

don't they dress better? My eye is yet filled with visions of the highflounced, slovenly, and tumbled dresses

in costly silk and satin, of the large unbecoming collars in expensive lace; of the illcut coats and strangely

fashioned pantaloons which every Sunday, at the English service, filled the choirs of the chapelroyal, and

after it, issuing forth into the square, came into disadvantageous contrast with freshly and trimly attired

foreign figures, hastening to attend salut at the church of Coburg.) I had passed these pairs of Britons, and the

groups of pretty British children, and the British footmen and waitingmaids; I had crossed the Place Royale,

and got into the Rue Royale, thence I had diverged into the Rue de Louvainan old and quiet street. I

remember that, feeling a little hungry, and not desiring to go back and take my share of the "gouter," now on

the refectorytable at Pelet'sto wit, pistolets and waterI stepped into a baker's and refreshed myself on a

COUC(?)it is a Flemish word, I don't know how to spell itA CORINTHEANGLICE, a currant

bunand a cup of coffee; and then I strolled on towards the Porte de Louvain. Very soon I was out of the

city, and slowly mounting the hill, which ascends from the gate, I took my time; for the afternoon, though

cloudy, was very sultry, and not a breeze stirred to refresh the atmosphere. No inhabitant of Brussels need

wander far to search for solitude; let him but move half a league from his own city and he will find her

brooding still and blank over the wide fields, so drear though so fertile, spread out treeless and trackless

round the capital of Brabant. Having gained the summit of the hill, and having stood and looked long over the

cultured but lifeless campaign, I felt a wish to quit the high road, which I had hitherto followed, and get in

among those tilled groundsfertile as the beds of a Brobdignagian kitchengardenspreading far and wide

even to the boundaries of the horizon, where, from a dusk green, distance changed them to a sullen blue, and

confused their tints with those of the livid and thunderouslooking sky. Accordingly I turned up a bypath to

the right; I had not followed it far ere it brought me, as I expected, into the fields, amidst which, just before

me, stretched a long and lofty white wall enclosing, as it seemed from the foliage showing above, some

thickly planted nursery of yew and cypress, for of that species were the branches resting on the pale parapets,

and crowding gloomily about a massive cross, planted doubtless on a central eminence and extending its

arms, which seemed of black marble, over the summits of those sinister trees. I approached, wondering to

what house this wellprotected garden appertained; I turned the angle of the wall, thinking to see some

stately residence; I was close upon great iron gates; there was a hut serving for a lodge near, but I had no

occasion to apply for the keythe gates were open; I pushed one leaf backrain had rusted its hinges, for it

groaned dolefully as they revolved. Thick planting embowered the entrance. Passing up the avenue, I saw

objects on each hand which, in their own mute language. of inscription and sign, explained clearly to what

abode I had made my way. This was the house appointed for all living; crosses, monuments, and garlands of

The place was large enough to afford half an hour's strolling without the monotony of treading continually

the same path; and, for those who love to peruse the annals of graveyards, here was variety of inscription

enough to occupy the attention for double or treble that space of time. Hither people of many kindreds,

tongues, and nations, had brought their dead for interment; and here, on pages of stone, of marble, and of

brass, were written names, dates, last tributes of pomp or love, in English, in French, in German, and Latin.

Here the Englishman had erected a marble monument over the remains of his Mary Smith or Jane Brown, and

inscribed it only with her name. There the French widower had shaded the grave: of his Elmire or Celestine

with a brilliant thicket of roses, amidst which a little tablet rising, bore an equally bright testimony to her

countless virtues. Every nation, tribe, and kindred, mourned after its own fashion; and how soundless was the

mourning of all! My own tread, though slow and upon smoothrolled paths, seemed to startle, because it

formed the sole break to a silence otherwise total. Not only the winds, but the very fitful, wandering airs,

were that afternoon, as by common consent, all fallen asleep in their various quarters; the north was hushed,

the south silent, the east sobbed not, nor did the west whisper. The clouds in heaven were condensed and dull,

but apparently quite motionless. Under the trees of this cemetery nestled a warm breathless gloom, out of

which the cypresses stood up straight and mute, above which the willows hung low and still; where the

flowers, as languid as fair, waited listless for night dew or thundershower; where the tombs, and those they

Importuned by the sound of my own footsteps, I turned off upon the turf, and slowly advanced to a grove of

yews; I saw something stir among the stems; I thought it might be a broken branch swinging, my

shortsighted vision had caught no form, only a sense of motion; but the dusky shade passed on, appearing

and disappearing at the openings in the avenue. I soon discerned it was a living thing, and a human thing;

and, drawing nearer, I perceived it was a woman, pacing slowly to and fro, and evidently deeming herself

alone as I had deemed myself alone, and meditating as I had been meditating. Ere long she returned to a seat

which I fancy she had but just quitted, or I should have caught sight of her before. It was in a nook, screened

by a clump of trees; there was the white wall before her, and a little stone set up against the wall, and, at the

foot of the stone, was an allotment of turf freshly turned up, a newmade grave. I put on my spectacles, and

passed softly close behind her; glancing at the inscription on the stone, I read," Julienne Henri, died at

Brussels, aged sixty. August 10th, 18." Having perused the inscription, I looked down at the form sitting

bent and thoughtful just under my eyes, unconscious of the vicinity of any living thing; it was a slim,

youthful figure in mourning apparel of the plainest black stuff, with a little simple, black crape bonnet; I felt,

as well as saw, who it was; and, moving neither hand nor foot, I stood some moments enjoying the security of

conviction. I had sought her for a month, and had never discovered one of her tracesnever met a hope, or

seized a chance of encountering her anywhere. I had been forced to loosen my grasp on expectation; and, but

an hour ago, had sunk slackly under the discouraging thought that the current of life, and the impulse of

destiny, had swept her for ever from my reach; and, behold, while bending suddenly earthward beneath the

pressure of despondencywhile following with my eyes the track of sorrow on the turf of a

graveyardhere was my lost jewel dropped on the tearfed herbage, nestling in the messy and mouldy roots

Frances sat very quiet, her elbow on her knee, and her head on her hand. I knew she could retain a thinking

attitude a long time without change; at last, a tear fell; she had been looking at the name on the stone before

her, and her heart had no doubt endured one of those constrictions with which the desolate living, regretting

the dead, are, at times, so sorely oppressed. Many tears rolled down, which she wiped away, again and again,

with her handkerchief; some distressed sobs escaped her, and then, the paroxysm over, she sat quiet as before.

I put my hand gently on her shoulder; no need further to prepare her, for she was neither hysterical nor liable

to faintingfits; a sudden push, indeed, might have startled her, but the contact of my quiet touch merely

woke attention as I wished; and, though she turned quickly, yet so lightningswift is thoughtin some

minds especiallyI believe the wonder of whatthe consciousness of who it was that thus stole unawares

on her solitude, had passed through her brain, and flashed into her heart, even before she had effected that

hasty movement; at least, Amazement had hardly opened her eyes and raised them to mine, ere Recognition

informed their irids with most speaking brightness. Nervous surprise had hardly discomposed her features ere

a sentiment of most vivid joy shone clear and warm on her whole countenance. I had hardly time to observe

that she was wasted and pale, ere called to feel a responsive inward pleasure by the sense of most full and

exquisite pleasure glowing in the animated flush, and shining in the expansive light, now diffused over my

pupil's face. It was the summer sun flashing out after the heavy summer shower; and what fertilizes more

I hate boldnessthat boldness which is of the brassy brow and insensate nerves; but I love the courage of the

strong heart, the fervour of the generous blood; I loved with passion the light of Frances Evans' clear hazel

eye when it did not fear to look straight into mine; I loved the tones with which she uttered the words

I loved the movement with which she confided her hand to my hand; I loved her as she stood there, penniless

and parentless; for a sensualist charmless, for me a treasuremy best object of sympathy on earth, thinking

such thoughts as I thought, feeling such feelings as I felt; my ideal of the shrine in which to seal my stores of

love; personification of discretion and forethought, of diligence and perseverance, of selfdenial and

selfcontrol those guardians, those trusty keepers of the gift I longed to confer on herthe gift of all my

affections; model of truth and honour, of independence and conscientiousnessthose refiners and sustainers

of an honest life; silent possessor of a well of tenderness, of a flame, as genial as still, as pure as quenchless,

of natural feeling, natural passionthose sources of refreshment and comfort to the sanctuary of home. I

knew how quietly and how deeply the well bubbled in her heart; I knew how the more dangerous flame

burned safely under the eye of reason; I had seen when the fire shot up a moment high and vivid, when the

accelerated heat troubled life's current in its channels; I had seen reason reduce the rebel, and humble its

blaze to embers. I had confidence in Frances Evans; I had respect for her, and as I drew her arm through

mine, and led her out of the cemetery, I felt I had another sentiment, as strong as confidence, as firm as

"Well, my pupil," said I, as the ominous sounding gate swung to behind us"Well, I have found you again:

a month's search has seemed long, and I little thought to have discovered my lost sheep straying amongst

Never had I addressed her but as " Mademoiselle" before, and to speak thus was to take up a tone new to both

her and me. Her answer suprised me that this language ruffled none of her feelings, woke no discord in her

"Mon maitre," she said, "have you troubled yourself to seek me? I little imagined you would think much of

my absence, but I grieved bitterly to be taken away from you. I was sorry for that circumstance when heavier

"Yes, a fortnight since, and she died full of regret, which I could not chase from her mind; she kept repeating,

even during the last night of her existence, 'Frances, you will be so lonely when I am gone, so friendless:' she

wished too that she could have been buried in Switzerland, and it was I who persuaded her in her old age to

leave the banks of Lake Leman, and to come, only as it seems to die, in this flat region of Flanders. Willingly

would I have observed her last wish, and taken her remains back to our own country, but that was impossible;

"But three weeks. When she began to sink I asked Mdlle. Reuter's leave to stay with her and wait on her; I

"Monsieur, when I had been at home a week Mdlle. Reuter called one evening, just after I had got my aunt to

bed; she went into her room to speak to her, and was extremely civil and affable, as she always is; afterwards

she came and sat with me a long time, and just as she rose to go away, she said: "Mademoiselle, I shall not

soon cease to regret your departure from my establishment, though indeed it is true that you have taught your

class of pupils so well that they are all quite accomplished in the little works you manage so skilfully, and

have not the slightest need of further instruction; my second teacher must in future supply your place, with

regard to the younger pupils, as well as she can, though she is indeed an inferior artiste to you, and doubtless

it will be your part now to assume a higher position in your calling; I am sure you will everywhere find

schools and families willing to profit by your talents.' And then she paid me my last quarter's salary. I asked,

as mademoiselle would no doubt think, very bluntly, if she designed to discharge me from the establishment.

She smiled at my inelegance of speech, and answered that 'our connection as employer and employed was

certainly dissolved, but that she hoped still to retain the pleasure of my acquaintance; she should always be

happy to see me as a friend;' and then she said something about the excellent condition of the streets, and the

I laughed inwardly; all this was so like the directressso like what I had expected and guessed of her

conduct; and then the exposure and proof of her lie, unconsciously afforded by Frances:"She had

frequently applied for Mdlle. Henri's address," forsooth; "Mdlle. Henri had always evaded giving it," and

here I found her a visitor at the very house of whose locality she had professed absolute ignorance!

Any comments I might have intended to make on my pupil's communication, were checked by the plashing

of large raindrops on our faces and on the path, and by the muttering of a distant but coming storm. The

warning obvious in stagnant air and leaden sky had already induced me to take the road leading back to

Brussels, and now I hastened my own steps and those of my companion, and, as our way lay downhill, we got

on rapidly. There was an interval after the fall of the first broad drops before heavy rain came on; in the

meantime we had passed through the Porte de Louvain, and were again in the city.

It was not far from the Rue de Louvain, and we stood on the doorsteps of the house we sought ere the clouds,

severing with loud peal and shattered cataract of lightning, emptied their livid folds in a torrent, heavy, prone,

"Come in! come in!" said Frances, as, after putting her into the house, I paused ere I followed: the word

decided me; I stepped across the threshold, shut the door on the rushing, flashing, whitening storm, and

followed her upstairs to her apartments. Neither she nor I were wet; a projection over the door had warded off

the straightdescending flood; none but the first, large drops had touched our garments; one minute more and

Stepping over a little mat of green wool, I found myself in a small room with a painted floor and a square of

green carpet in the middle; the articles of furniture were few, but all bright and exquisitely clean; order

reigned through its narrow limits such order as it soothed my punctilious soul to behold. And I had

hesitated to enter the abode, because I apprehended after all that Mdlle. Reuter's hint about its extreme

poverty might be too wellfounded, and I feared to embarrass the lacemender by entering her lodgings

unawares! Poor the place might be; poor truly it was; but its neatness was better than elegance, and had but a

bright little fire shone on that clean hearth, I should have deemed it more attractive than a palace. No fire was

there, however, and no fuel laid ready to light; the lacemender was unable to allow herself that indulgence,

especially now when, deprived by death of her sole relative, she had only her own unaided exertions to rely

on. Frances went into an inner room to take off her bonnet, and she came out a model of frugal neatness, with

her wellfitting black stuff dress, so accurately defining her elegant bust and taper waist, with her spotless

white collar turned back from a fair and shapely neck, with her plenteous brown hair arranged in smooth

bands on her temples, and in a large Grecian plait behind: ornaments she had noneneither brooch, ring, nor

ribbon; she did well enough without them perfection of fit, proportion of form, grace of carriage, agreeably

supplied their place. Her eye, as she reentered the small sittingroom, instantly sought mine, which was just

then lingering on the hearth; I knew she read at once the sort of inward ruth and pitying pain which the chill

vacancy of that hearth stirred in my soul: quick to penetrate, quick to determine, and quicker to put in

practice, she had in a moment tied a holland apron round her waist; then she disappeared, and reappeared

with a basket; it had a cover; she opened it, and produced wood and coal; deftly and compactly she arranged

"What are you going to do?" I asked: "not surely to light a fire this hot evening? I shall be smothered."

"Indeed, monsieur, I feel it very chilly since the rain began; besides, I must boil the water for my tea, for I

She had struck a light; the wood was already in a blaze; and truly, when contrasted with the darkness, the

wild tumult of the tempest without, that peaceful glow which began to beam on the now animated hearth,

seemed very cheering. A low, purring sound, from some quarter, announced that another being, besides

myself, was pleased with the change; a black cat, roused by the light from its sleep on a little cushioned

footstool, came and rubbed its head against Frances' gown as she knelt; she caressed it, saying it had been a

The fire being lit, the hearth swept, and a small kettle of a very antique pattern, such as I thought I

remembered to have seen in old farmhouses in England, placed over the now ruddy flame, Frances' hands

were washed, and her apron removed in an instant then she opened a cupboard, and took out a teatray, on

which she had soon arranged a china teaequipage, whose pattern, shape, and size, denoted a remote

antiquity; a little, oldfashioned silver spoon was deposited in each saucer; and a pair of silver tongs, equally

oldfashioned, were laid on the sugarbasin; from the cupboard, too, was produced a tidy silver creamewer,

not larger then an eggshell. While making these preparations, she chanced to look up, and, reading curiosity

"Is it truly? Well, everything on this tray is at least a hundred years old: these cups, these spoons, this ewer,

are all heirlooms; my greatgrandmother left them to my grandmother, she to my mother, and my mother

brought them with her from England to Switzerland, and left them to me; and, ever since I was a little girl, I

She put some pistolets on the table; she made the tea, as foreigners do make teai.e., at the rate of a

teaspoonful to halfadozen cups; she placed me a chair, and, as I took it, she asked, with a sort of

"If I had a home in England, I believe it would recall it," I answered; and, in truth, there was a sort of illusion

in seeing the faircomplexioned Englishlooking girl presiding at the English meal, and speaking in the

"None, nor ever have had. If ever I possess a home, it must be of my own making, and the task is yet to

begin." And, as I spoke, a pang, new to me, shot across my heart: it was a pang of mortification at the

humility of my position, and the inadequacy of my means; while with that pang was born a strong desire to

do more, earn more, be more, possess more; and in the increased possessions, my roused and eager spirit

Frances' tea was little better than hot water, sugar, and milk; and her pistolets, with which she could not offer

The repast over, and the treasured plate and porcelain being washed and put by, the bright table rubbed still

brighter, "le chat de ma tante Julienne" also being fed with provisions brought forth on a plate for its special

use, a few stray cinders, and a scattering of ashes too, being swept from the hearth, Frances at last sat down;

and then, as she took a chair opposite to me, she betrayed, for the first time, a little embarrassment; and no

wonder, for indeed I had unconsciously watched her rather too closely, followed all her steps and all her

movements a little too perseveringly with my eyes, for she mesmerized me by the grace and alertness of her

actionby the deft, cleanly, and even decorative effect resulting from each touch of her slight and fine

fingers; and when, at last, she subsided to stillness, the intelligence of her face seemed beauty to me, and I

dwelt on it accordingly. Her colour, however, rising, rather than settling with repose, and her eyes remaining

downcast, though I kept waiting for the lids to be raised that I might drink a ray of the light I loveda light

where fire dissolved in softness, where affection tempered penetration, where, just now at least, pleasure

played with thoughtthis expectation not being gratified, I began at last to suspect that I had probably

myself to blame for the disappointment; I must cease gazing, and begin talking, if I wished to break the spell

under which she now sat motionless; so recollecting the composing effect which an authoritative tone and

"Get one of your English books, mademoiselle, for the rain yet falls heavily, and will probably detain me half

Released, and set at ease, up she rose, got her book, and accepted at once the chair I placed for her at my side.

She had selected "Paradise Lost" from her shelf of classics, thinking, I suppose, the religious character of the

book best adapted it to Sunday; I told her to begin at the beginning, and while she read Milton's invocation to

that heavenly muse, who on the "secret top of Oreb or Sinai" had taught the Hebrew shepherd how in the

womb of chaos, the conception of a world had originated and ripened, I enjoyed, undisturbed, the treble

pleasure of having her near me, hearing the sound of her voicea sound sweet and satisfying in my

earand looking, by intervals, at her face: of this last privilege, I chiefly availed myself when I found fault

with an intonation, a pause, or an emphasis; as long as I dogmatized, I might also gaze, without exciting too

"Enough," said I, when she had gone through some half dozen pages (a work of time with her, for she read

slowly and paused often to ask and receive information)"enough; and now the rain is ceasing, and I must

soon go." For indeed, at that moment, looking towards the window, I saw it all blue; the thunderclouds were

broken and scattered, and the setting August sun sent a gleam like the reflection of rubies through the lattice.

"You have not yet found another situation to supply the place of that from which you were dismissed by

"No, monsieur; I have made inquiries everywhere, but they all ask me for references; and to speak truth, I do

not like to apply to the directress, because I consider she acted neither justly nor honourably towards me; she

used underhand means to set my pupils against me, and thereby render me unhappy while I held my place in

her establishment, and she eventually deprived me of it by a masked and hypocritical manoeuvre, pretending

that she was acting for my good, but really snatching from me my chief means of subsistence, at a crisis when

not only my own life, but that of another, depended on my exertions: of her I will never more ask a favour."

"I have still my lacemending trade; with care it will keep me from starvation, and I doubt not by dint of

exertion to get better employment yet; it is only a fortnight since I began to try; my courage or hopes are by

"Well, wellere long I shall pay you another visit; good evening now," and I left her rather abruptly; I had

much ado to resist a strong inward impulse, urging me to take a warmer, more expressive leave: what so

natural as to fold her for a moment in a close embrace, to imprint one kiss on her cheek or forehead? I was

not unreasonablethat was all I wanted; satisfied in that point, I could go away content; and Reason denied

me even this; she ordered me to turn my eyes from her face, and my steps from her apartmentto quit her as

dryly and coldly as I would have quitted old Madame Pelet. I obeyed, but I swore rancorously to be avenged

one day. "I'll earn a right to do as I please in this matter, or I'll die in the contest. I have one object before me

nowto get that Genevese girl for my wife; and my wife she shall bethat is, provided she has as much, or

half as much regard for her master as he has for her. And would she be so docile, so smiling, so happy under

my instructions if she had not? would she sit at my side when I dictate or correct, with such a still, contented,

halcyon mien?" for I had ever remarked, that however sad or harassed her countenance might be when I

entered a room, yet after I had been near her, spoken to her a few words, given her some directions, uttered

perhaps some reproofs, she would, all at once, nestle into a nook of happiness, and look up serene and

revived. The reproofs suited her best of all: while I scolded she would chip away with her penknife at a

pencil or a pen; fidgetting a little, pouting a little, defending herself by monosyllables, and when I deprived

her of the pen or pencil, fearing it would be all cut away, and when I interdicted even the monosyllabic

defence, for the purpose of working up the subdued excitement a little higher, she would at last raise her eyes

and give me a certain glance, sweetened with gaiety, and pointed with defiance, which, to speak truth, thrilled

me as nothing had ever done, and made me, in a fashion (though happily she did not know it), her subject, if

not her slave. After such little scenes her spirits would maintain their flow, often for some hours, and, as I

remarked before, her health therefrom took a sustenance and vigour which, previously to the event of her

It has taken me several minutes to write these last sentences; but I had thought all their purport during the

brief interval of descending the stairs from Frances' room. Just as I was opening the outer door, I remembered

the twenty francs which I had not restored; I paused: impossible to carry them away with me; difficult to

force them back on their original owner; I had now seen her in her own humble abode, witnessed the dignity

of her poverty, the pride of order, the fastidious care of conservatism, obvious in the arrangement and

economy of her little home; I was sure she would not suffer herself to be excused paying her debts; I was

certain the favour of indemnity would be accepted from no hand, perhaps least of all from mine: yet these

four fivefranc pieces were a burden to my selfrespect, and I must get rid of them. An expedienta clumsy

one no doubt, but the best I could devisesuggested itself to me. I darted up the stairs, knocked, reentered

She instantly rose to seek it; as she turned her back, Ibeing now at the hearthnoiselessly lifted a little

vase, one of a set of china ornaments, as oldfashioned as the teacupsslipped the money under it, then

saying"Oh here is my glove! I had dropped it within the fender; good evening, mademoiselle," I made my

Brief as my impromptu return had been, it had afforded me time to pick up a heartache; I remarked that

Frances had already removed the red embers of her cheerful little fire from the grate: forced to calculate

every item, to save in every detail, she had instantly on my departure retrenched a luxury too expensive to be

"I am glad it is not yet winter," thought I; "but in two months more come the winds and rains of November;

would to God that before then I could earn the right, and the power, to shovel coals into that grate AD

Already the pavement was drying; a balmy and fresh breeze stirred the air, purified by lightning; I felt the

West behind me, where spread a sky like opal; azure immingled with crimson: the enlarged sun, glorious in

Tyrian tints, dipped his brim already; stepping, as I was, eastward, I faced a vast bank of clouds, but also I

had before me the arch of an evening rainbow; a perfect rainbowhigh, wide, vivid. I looked long; my eye

drank in the scene, and I suppose my brain must have absorbed it; for that night, after lying awake in pleasant

fever a long time, watching the silent sheetlightning, which still played among the retreating clouds, and

flashed silvery over the stars, I at last fell asleep; and then in a dream were reproduced the setting sun, the

bank of clouds, the mighty rainbow. I stood, methought, on a terrace; I leaned over a parapeted wall; there

was space below me, depth I could not fathom, but hearing an endless dash of waves, I believed it to be the

sea; sea spread to the horizon; sea of changeful green and intense blue: all was soft in the distance; all

vapourveiled. A spark of gold glistened on the line between water and air, floated up, approached, enlarged,

changed; the object hung midway between heaven and earth, under the arch of the rainbow; the soft but dusk

clouds diffused behind. It hovered as on wings; pearly, fleecy, gleaming air streamed like raiment round it;

light, tinted with carnation, coloured what seemed face and limbs; A large star shone with still lustre on an

angel's forehead; an upraised arm and hand, glancing like a ray, pointed to the bow overhead, and a voice in

A COMPETENCY was what I wanted; a competency it was now my aim and resolve to secure; but never had

I been farther from the mark. With August the schoolyear (l'annee scolaire) closed, the examinations

concluded, the prizes were adjudged, the schools dispersed, the gates of all colleges, the doors of all

pensionnats shut, not to be reopened till the beginning or middle of October. The last day of August was at

hand, and what was my position? Had I advanced a step since the commencement of the past quarter? On the

contrary, I had receded one. By renouncing my engagement as English master in Mdlle. Reuter's

establishment, I had voluntarily cut off 20l. from my yearly income; I had diminished my 60l. per annum to

It is some time since I made any reference to M. Pelet. The moonlight walk is, I think, the last incident

recorded in this narrative where that gentleman cuts any conspicuous figure: the fact is, since that event, a

change had come over the spirit of our intercourse. He, indeed, ignorant that the still hour, a cloudless moon,

and an open lattice, had revealed to me the secret of his selfish love and false friendship, would have

continued smooth and complaisant as ever; but I grew spiny as a porcupine, and inflexible as a blackthorn

cudgel; I never had a smile for his raillery, never a moment for his society; his invitations to take coffee with

him in his parlour were invariably rejected, and very stiffly and sternly rejected too; his jesting allusions to

the directress (which he still continued) were heard with a grim calm very different from the petulant pleasure

they were formerly wont to excite. For a long time Pelet bore with my frigid demeanour very patiently; he

even increased his attentions; but finding that even a cringing politeness failed to thaw or move me, he at last

altered too; in his turn he cooled; his invitations ceased; his countenance became suspicious and overcast, and

I read in the perplexed yet brooding aspect of his brow, a constant examination and comparison of premises,

and an anxious endeavour to draw thence some explanatory inference. Ere long, I fancy, he succeeded, for he

was not without penetration; perhaps, too, Mdlle. Zoraide might have aided him in the solution of the enigma;

at any rate I soon found that the uncertainty of doubt had vanished from his manner; renouncing all pretence

of friendship and cordiality, he adopted a reserved, formal, but still scrupulously polite deportment. This was

the point to which I had wished to bring him, and I was now again comparatively at my ease. I did not, it is

true, like my position in his house; but being freed from the annoyance of false professions and

doubledealing I could endure it, especially as no heroic sentiment of hatred or jealousy of the director

distracted my philosophical soul; he had not, I found, wounded me in a very tender point, the wound was so

soon and so radically healed, leaving only a sense of contempt for the treacherous fashion in which it had

been inflicted, and a lasting mistrust of the hand which I had detected attempting to stab in the dark.

This state of things continued till about the middle of July, and then there was a little change; Pelet came

home one night, an hour after his usual time, in a state of unequivocal intoxication, a thing anomalous with

him; for if he had some of the worst faults of his countrymen, he had also one at least of their virtues, i.e.

sobriety. So drunk, however, was he upon this occasion, that after having roused the whole establishment

(except the pupils, whose dormitory being over the classes in a building apart from the dwellinghouse, was

consequently out of the reach of disturbance) by violently ringing the hallbell and ordering lunch to be

brought in immediately, for he imagined it was noon, whereas the city bells had just tolled midnight; after

having furiously rated the servants for their want of punctuality, and gone near to chastise his poor old

mother, who advised him to go to bed, he began raving dreadfully about "le maudit Anglais, Creemsvort." I

had not yet retired; some German books I had got hold of had kept me up late; I heard the uproar below, and

could distinguish the director's voice exalted in a manner as appalling as it was unusual. Opening my door a

little, I became aware of a demand on his part for "Creemsvort" to be brought down to him that he might cut

his throat on the halltable and wash his honour, which he affirmed to be in a dirty condition, in infernal

British blood. "He is either mad or drunk," thought I, "and in either case the old woman and the servants will

be the better of a man's assistance," so I descended straight to the hall. I found him staggering about, his eyes

in a fine frenzy rollinga pretty sight he was, a just medium between the fool and the lunatic.

"Come, M. Pelet," said I, "you had better go to bed," and I took hold of his arm. His excitement, of course,

increased greatly at sight and touch of the individual for whose blood he had been making application: he

struggled and struck with furybut a drunken man is no match for a sober one; and, even in his normal state,

Pelet's worn out frame could not have stood against my sound one. I got him upstairs, and, in process of

time, to bed. During the operation he did not fail to utter comminations which, though broken, had a sense in

them; while stigmatizing me as the treacherous spawn of a perfidious country, he, in the same breath,

anathematized Zoraide Reuter; he termed her "femme sotte et vicieuse," who, in a fit of lewd caprice, had

thrown herself away on an unprincipled adventurer; directing the point of the last appellation by a furious

blow, obliquely aimed at me. I left him in the act of bounding elastically out of the bed into which I had

tucked him; but, as I took the precaution of turning the key in the door behind me, I retired to my own room,

assured of his safe custody till the morning, and free to draw undisturbed conclusions from the scene I had

Now, it was precisely about this time that the directress, stung by my coldness, bewitched by my scorn,and

excited by the preference she suspected me of cherishing for another, had fallen into a snare of her own

layingwas herself caught in the meshes of the very passion with which she wished to entangle me.

Conscious of the state of things in that quarter, I gathered, from the condition in which I saw my employer,

that his ladylove had betrayed the alienation of her affectionsinclinations, rather, I would say; affection is

a word at once too warm and too pure for the subjecthad let him see that the cavity of her hollow heart,

emptied of his image, was now occupied by that of his usher. It was not without some surprise that I found

myself obliged to entertain this view of the case; Pelet, with his old established school, was so convenient,

so profitable a match Zoraide was so calculating, so interested a womanI wondered mere personal

preference could, in her mind, have prevailed for a moment over worldly advantage: yet, it was evident, from

what Pelet said, that, not only had she repulsed him, but had even let slip expressions of partiality for me.

One of his drunken exclamations was, "And the jade doats on your youth, you raw blockhead! and talks of

your noble deportment, as she calls your accursed English formalityand your pure morals, forsooth! des

moeurs de Caton atelle ditsotte!" Hers, I thought, must be a curious soul, where in spite of a strong,

natural tendency to estimate unduly advantages of wealth and station, the sardonic disdain of a fortuneless

subordinate had wrought a deeper impression than could be imprinted by the most flattering assiduities of a

prosperous CHEF D'INSTITUTION. I smiled inwardly; and strange to say, though my AMOUR PROPRE

was excited not disagreeably by the conquest, my better feelings remained untouched. Next day, when I saw

the directress, and when she made an excuse to meet me in the corridor, and besought my notice by a

demeanour and look subdued to Helot humility, I could not love, I could scarcely pity her. To answer briefly

and dryly some interesting inquiry about my healthto pass her by with a stern bowwas all I could; her

presence and manner had then, and for some time previously and consequently, a singular effect upon me:

they sealed up all that was good elicited all that was noxious in my nature; sometimes they enervated my

senses, but they always hardened my heart. I was aware of the detriment done, and quarrelled with myself for

the change. I had ever hated a tyrant; and, behold, the possession of a slave, selfgiven, went near to

transform me into what I abhorred! There was at once a sort of low gratification in receiving this luscious

incense from an attractive and still young worshipper; and an irritating sense of degradation in the very

experience of the pleasure. When she stole about me with the soft step of a slave, I felt at once barbarous and

sensual as a pasha. I endured her homage sometimes; sometimes I rebuked it. My indifference or harshness

"Que le dedain lui sied bien!" I once overheard her say to her mother: "il est beau comme Apollon quand il

And the jolly old dame laughed, and said she thought her daughter was bewitched, for I had no point of a

handsome man about me, except being straight and without deformity. "Pour moi," she continued, "il me fait

Worthy old girl! I could have gone and kissed her had she not been a little too old, too fat, and too redfaced;

her sensible, truthful words seemed so wholesome, contrasted with the morbid illusions of her daughter.

When Pelet awoke on the morning after his frenzy fit, he retained no recollection of what had happened the

previous night, and his mother fortunately had the discretion to refrain from informing him that I had been a

witness of his degradation. He did not again have recourse to wine for curing his griefs, but even in his sober

mood he soon showed that the iron of jealousy had entered into his soul. A thorough Frenchman, the national

characteristic of ferocity had not been omitted by nature in compounding the ingredients of his character; it

had appeared first in his access of drunken wrath, when some of his demonstrations of hatred to my person

were of a truly fiendish character, and now it was more covertly betrayed by momentary contractions of the

features, and flashes of fierceness in his light blue eyes, when their glance chanced to encounter mine. He

absolutely avoided speaking to me; I was now spared even the falsehood of his politeness. In this state of our

mutual relations, my soul rebelled. sometimes almost ungovernably, against living in the house and

discharging the service of such a man; but who is free from the constraint of circumstances? At that time, I

was not: I used to rise each morning eager to shake off his yoke, and go out with my portmanteau under my

arm, if a beggar, at least a freeman; and in the evening, when I came back from the pensionnat de

demoiselles, a certain pleasant voice in my ear; a certain face, so intelligent, yet so docile, so reflective, yet so

soft, in my eyes; a certain cast of character, at once proud and pliant, sensitive and sagacious, serious and

ardent, in my head; a certain tone of feeling, fervid and modest, refined and practical, pure and powerful,

delighting and troubling my memoryvisions of new ties I longed to contract, of new duties I longed to

undertake, had taken the rover and the rebel out of me, and had shown endurance of my hated lot in the light

But Pelet's fury subsided; a fortnight sufficed for its rise, progress, and extinction: in that space of time the

dismissal of the obnoxious teacher had been effected in the neighbouring house, and in the same interval I

had declared my resolution to follow and find out my pupil, and upon my application for her address being

refused, I had summarily resigned my own post. This last act seemed at once to restore Mdlle. Reuter to her

senses; her sagacity, her judgment, so long misled by a fascinating delusion, struck again into the right track

the moment that delusion vanished. By the right track, I do not mean the steep and difficult path of

principlein that path she never trod; but the plain highway of common sense, from which she had of late

widely diverged. When there she carefully sought, and having found, industriously pursued the trail of her old

suitor, M. Pelet. She soon overtook him. What arts she employed to soothe and blind him I know not, but she

succeeded both in allaying his wrath, and hoodwinking his discernment, as was soon proved by the alteration

in his mien and manner; she must have managed to convince him that I neither was, nor ever had been, a rival

of his, for the fortnight of fury against me terminated in a fit of exceeding graciousness and amenity, not

unmixed with a dash of exulting selfcomplacency, more ludicrous than irritating. Pelet's bachelor's life had

been passed in proper French style with due disregard to moral restraint, and I thought his married life

promised to be very French also. He often boasted to me what a terror he had been to certain husbands of his

acquaintance; I perceived it would not now be difficult to pay him back in his own coin.

The crisis drew on. No sooner had the holidays commenced than note of preparation for some momentous

event sounded all through the premises of Pelet: painters, polishers, and upholsterers were immediately set to

work, and there was talk of "la chambre de Madame," "le salon de Madame." Not deeming it probable that

the old duenna at present graced with that title in our house, had inspired her son with such enthusiasm of

filial piety, as to induce him to fit up apartments expressly for her use, I concluded, in common with the cook,

the two housemaids, and the kitchenscullion, that a new and more juvenile Madame was destined to be the

Presently official announcement of the coming event was put forth. In another week's time M. Francois Pelet,

directeur, and Mdlle. Zoraide Reuter, directrice, were to be joined together in the bands of matrimony.

Monsieur, in person, heralded the fact to me; terminating his communication by an obliging expression of his

desire that I should continue, as heretofore, his ablest assistant and most trusted friend; and a proposition to

raise my salary by an additional two hundred francs per annum. I thanked him, gave no conclusive answer at

the time, and, when he had left me, threw off my blouse, put on my coat, and set out on a long walk outside

the Porte de Flandre, in order, as I thought, to cool my blood, calm my nerves, and shake my disarranged

ideas into some order. In fact, I had just received what was virtually my dismissal. I could not conceal, I did

not desire to conceal from myself the conviction that, being now certain that Mdlle. Reuter was destined to

become Madame Pelet it would not do for me to remain a dependent dweller in the house which was soon to

be hers. Her present demeanour towards me was deficient neither in dignity nor propriety; but I knew her

former feeling was unchanged. Decorum now repressed, and Policy masked it, but Opportunity would be too

I was no popeI could not boast infallibility: in short, if I stayed, the probability was that, in three months'

time, a practical modern French novel would be in full process of concoction under the roof of the

unsuspecting Pelet. Now, modern French novels are not to my taste, either practically or theoretically.

Limited as had yet been my experience of life, I had once had the opportunity of contemplating, near at hand,

an example of the results produced by a course of interesting and romantic domestic treachery. No golden

halo of fiction was about this example, I saw it bare and real, and it was very loathsome. I saw a mind

degraded by the practice of mean subterfuge, by the habit of perfidious deception, and a body depraved by

the infectious influence of the vicepolluted soul. I had suffered much from the forced and prolonged view of

this spectacle; those sufferings I did not now regret, for their simple recollection acted as a most wholesome

antidote to temptation. They had inscribed on my reason the conviction that unlawful pleasure, trenching on

another's rights, is delusive and envenomed pleasureits hollowness disappoints at the time, its poison

>From all this resulted the conclusion that I must leave Pelet's, and that instantly; "but," said Prudence, "you

know not where to go, nor how to live;" and then the dream of true love came over me: Frances Henri seemed

to stand at my side; her slender waist to invite my arm; her hand to court my hand; I felt it was made to nestle

in mine; I could not relinquish my right to it, nor could I withdraw my eyes for ever from hers, where I saw

so much happiness, such a correspondence of heart with heart; over whose expression I had such influence;

where I could kindle bliss, infuse awe, stir deep delight, rouse sparkling spirit, and sometimes waken

pleasurable dread. My hopes to will and possess, my resolutions to merit and rise, rose in array against me;

and here I was about to plunge into the gulf of absolute destitution; "and all this," suggested an inward voice,

"because you fear an evil which may never happen!" "It will happen; you KNOW it will," answered that

stubborn monitor, Conscience. "Do what you feel is right; obey me, and even in the sloughs of want I will

plant for you firm footing." And then, as I walked fast along the road, there rose upon me a strange, inlyfelt

idea of some Great Being, unseen, but all present, who in His beneficence desired only my welfare, and now

watched the struggle of good sad evil in my heart, and waited to see whether I should obey His voice, heard

in the whispers of my conscience, or lend an ear to the sophisms by which His enemy and minethe Spirit

of Evil sought to lead me astray. Rough and steep was the path indicated by divine suggestion; mossy and

declining the green way along which Temptation strewed flowers; but whereas, methought, the Deity of

Love, the Friend of all that exists, would smile wellpleased were I to gird up my loins and address myself to

the rude ascent; so, on the other hand, each inclination to the velvet declivity seemed to kindle a gleam of

triumph on the brow of the manhating, Goddefying demon. Sharp and short I turned round; fast I retraced

my steps; in half an hour I was again at M. Pelet's: I sought him in his study; brief parley, concise explanation

sufficed; my manner proved that I was resolved; he, perhaps, at heart approved my decision. After twenty

minutes' conversation, I reentered my own room, selfdeprived of the means of living, selfsentenced to

leave my present home, with the short notice of a week in which to provide another.

DIRECTLY as I closed the door, I saw laid on the table two letters; my thought was, that they were notes of

invitation from the friends of some of my pupils; I had received such marks of attention occasionally, and

with me, who had no friends, correspondence of more interest was out of the question; the postman's arrival

had never yet been an event of interest to me since I came to Brussels. I laid my hand carelessly on the

documents, and coldly and slowly glancing at them, I prepared to break the seals; my eye was arrested and

my hand too; I saw what excited me, as if I had found a vivid picture where I expected only to discover a

blank page: on one cover was an English postmark; on the other, a lady's clear, fine autograph; the last I

"MONSIEUR, "I FOUND out what you had done the very morning after your visit to me; you might be sure I

should dust the china, every day; and, as no one but you had been in my room for a week, and as

fairymoney is not current in Brussels, I could not doubt who left the twenty francs on the chimneypiece. I

thought I heard you stir the vase when I was stooping to look for your glove under the table, and I wondered

you should imagine it had got into such a little cup. Now, monsieur, the money is not mine, and I shall not

keep it; I will not send it in this note because it might be lostbesides, it is heavy; but I will restore it to you

the first time I see you, and you must make no difficulties about taking it; because, in the first place, I am

sure, monsieur, you can understand that one likes to pay one's debts; that it is satisfactory to owe no man

anything; and, in the second place, I can now very well afford to be honest, as I am provided with a situation.

This last circumstance is, indeed, the reason of my writing to you, for it is pleasant to communicate good

"A week ago, monsieur, I was sent for by a Mrs. Wharton, an English lady; her eldest daughter was going to

be married, and some rich relation having made her a present of a veil and dress in costly old lace, as

precious, they said, almost as jewels, but a little damaged by time, I was commissioned to put them in repair.

I had to do it at the house; they gave me, besides, some embroidery to complete, and nearly a week elapsed

before I had finished everything. While I worked, Miss Wharton often came into the room and sat with me,

and so did Mrs. Wharton; they made me talk English; asked how I had learned to speak it so well; then they

inquired what I knew besideswhat books I had read; soon they seemed to make a sort of wonder of me,

considering me no doubt as a learned grisette. One afternoon, Mrs. Wharton brought in a Parisian lady to test

the accuracy of my knowledge of French; the result of it: was that, owing probably in a great degree to the

mother's and daughter's good humour about the marriage, which inclined them to do beneficent deeds, and

partly, I think, because they are naturally benevolent people, they decided that the wish I had expressed to do

something more than mend lace was a very legitimate one; and the same day they took me in their carriage to

Mrs. D.'s, who is the directress of the first English school at Brussels. It seems she happened to be in want of

a French lady to give lessons in geography, history, grammar, and composition, in the French language. Mrs.

Wharton recommended me very warmly; and, as two of her younger daughters are pupils in the house, her

patronage availed to get me the place. It was settled that I am to attend six hours daily (for, happily, it was not

required that I should live in the house; I should have been sorry to leave my lodgings), and, for this, Mrs. D.

"You see, therefore, monsieur, that I am now rich; richer almost than I ever hoped to be: I feel thankful for it,

especially as my sight was beginning to be injured by constant working at fine lace; and I was getting, too,

very weary of sitting up late at nights, and yet not being able to find time for reading or study. I began to fear

that I should fall ill, and be unable to pay my way; this fear is now, in a great measure, removed; and, in truth,

monsieur, I am very grateful to God for the relief; and I feel it necessary, almost, to speak of my happiness to

some one who is kindhearted enough to derive joy from seeing others joyful. I could not, therefore, resist

the temptation of writing to you; I argued with myself it is very pleasant for me to write, and it will not be

exactly painful, though it may be tiresome to monsieur to read. Do not be too angry with my circumlocution

Having read this letter, I mused on its contents for a few momentswhether with sentiments pleasurable or

otherwise I will hereafter noteand then took up the other. It was directed in a hand to me unknownsmall,

and rather neat; neither masculine nor exactly feminine; the seal bore a coat of arms, concerning which I

could only decipher that it was not that of the Seacombe family, consequently the epistle could be from none

of my almost forgotten, and certainly quite forgetting patrician relations. >From whom, then, was it? I

"I have no doubt in the world that you are doing well in that greasy Flanders; living probably on the fat of the

unctuous land; sitting like a blackhaired, tawnyskinned, longnosed Israelite by the fleshpots of Egypt;

or like a rascally son of Levi near the brass cauldrons of the sanctuary, and every now and then plunging in a

consecrated hook, and drawing out of the sea, of broth the fattest of heaveshoulders and the fleshiest of

wavebreasts. I know this, because you never write to any one in England. Thankless dog that you are! I, by

the sovereign efficacy of my recommendation, got you the place where you are now living in clover, and yet

not a word of gratitude, or even acknowledgment, have you ever offered in return; but I am coming to see

you, and small conception can you, with your addled aristocratic brains, form of the sort of moral kicking I

have, ready packed in my carpetbag, destined to be presented to you immediately on my arrival.

"Meantime I know all about your affairs, and have just got information, by Brown's last letter, that you are

said to be on the point of forming an advantageous match with a pursy, little Belgian schoolmistressa

Mdlle. Zenobie, or some such name. Won't I have a look at her when I come over! And this you may rely on:

if she pleases my taste, or if I think it worth while in a pecuniary point of view, I'll pounce on your prize and

bear her away triumphant in spite of your teeth. Yet I don't like dumpies either, and Brown says she is little

and stoutthe better fitted for a wiry, starvedlooking chap like you. "Be on the lookout, for you know

neither the day nor hour when your (I don't wish to blaspheme, so I'll leave a blank) cometh.

"Humph!" said I; and ere I laid the letter down, I again glanced at the small, neat handwriting, not a bit like

that of a mercantile man, nor, indeed, of any man except Hunsden himself. They talk of affinities between the

autograph and the character: what affinity was there here? I recalled the writer's peculiar face and certain

traits I suspected, rather than knew, to appertain to his nature, and I answered, "A great deal."

Hunsden, then, was coming to Brussels, and coming I knew not when; coming charged with the expectation

of finding me on the summit of prosperity, about to be married, to step into a warm nest, to lie comfortably

"I wish him joy of the fidelity of the picture he has painted," thought I. "What will he say when, instead of a

pair of plump turtle doves, billing and cooing in a bower of roses, he finds a single lean cormorant, standing

mateless and shelterless on poverty's bleak cliff? Oh, confound him! Let him come, and let him laugh at the

contrast between rumour and fact. Were he the devil himself, instead of being merely very like him, I'd not

condescend to get out of his way, or to forge a smile or a cheerful word wherewith to avert his sarcasm."

Then I recurred to the other letter: that struck a chord whose sound I could not deaden by thrusting my fingers

into my ears, for it vibrated within; and though its swell might be exquisite music, its cadence was a groan.

That Frances was relieved from the pressure of want, that the curse of excessive labour was taken off her,

filled me with happiness; that her first thought in prosperity should be to augment her joy by sharing it with

me, met and satisfied the wish of my heart. Two results of her letter were then pleasant, sweet as two

draughts of nectar; but applying my lips for the third time to the cup, and they were excoriated as with

Two persons whose desires are moderate may live well enough in Brussels on an income which would

scarcely afford a respectable maintenance for one in London: and that, not because the necessaries of life are

so much dearer in the latter capital, or taxes so much higher than in the former, but because the English

surpass in folly all the nations on God's earth, and are more abject slaves to custom, to opinion, to the desire

to keep up a certain appearance, than the Italians are to priestcraft, the French to vainglory, the Russians to

their Czar, or the Germans to black beer. I have seen a degree of sense in the modest arrangement of one

homely Belgian household, that might put to shame the elegance, the superfluities, the luxuries, the strained

refinements of a hundred genteel English mansions. In Belgium, provided you can make money, you may

save it; this is scarcely possible in England; ostentation there lavishes in a month what industry has earned in

a year. More shame to all classes in that most bountiful and beggarly country for their servile following of

Fashion; I could write a chapter or two on this subject, but must forbear, at least for the present. Had I

retained my 60l. per annum I could, now that Frances was in possession of 50l., have gone straight to her this

very evening, and spoken out the words which, repressed, kept fretting my heart with fever; our united

income would, as we should have managed it, have sufficed well for our mutual support; since we lived in a

country where economy was not confounded with meanness, where frugality in dress, food, and furniture,

was not synonymous with vulgarity in these various points. But the placeless usher, bare of resource, and

unsupported by connections, must not think of this; such a sentiment as love, such a word as marriage, were

misplaced in his heart, and on his lips. Now for the first time did I truly feel what it was to be poor; now did

the sacrifice I had made in casting from me the means of living put on a new aspect; instead of a correct, just,

honourable act, it seemed a deed at once light and fanatical; I took several turns in my room, under the

goading influence of most poignant remorse; I walked a quarter of an hour from the wall to the window; and

at the window, selfreproach seemed to face me; at the wall, selfdisdain: all at once out spoke

"Down, stupid tormenters!" cried she; "the man has done his duty; you shall not bait him thus by thoughts of

what might have been; he relinquished a temporary and contingent good to avoid a permanent and certain evil

he did well. Let him reflect now, and when your blinding dust and deafening hum subside, he will discover a

I sat down; I propped my forehead on both my hands; I thought and thought an hourtwo hours; vainly. I

seemed like one sealed in a subterranean vault, who gazes at utter blackness; at blackness ensured by

yardthick stone walls around, and by piles of building above, expecting light to penetrate through granite,

and through cement firm as granite. But there are chinks, or there may be chinks, in the best adjusted

masonry; there was a chink in my cavernous cell; for, eventually, I saw, or seemed to see, a raypallid,

indeed, and cold, and doubtful, but still a ray, for it showed that narrow path which conscience had promised

after two, three hours' torturing research in brain and memory, I disinterred certain remains of circumstances,

and conceived a hope that by putting them together an expedient might be framed, and a resource discovered.

Some three months ago M. Pelet had, on the occasion of his fete, given the boys a treat, which treat consisted

in a party of pleasure to a certain place of public resort in the outskirts of Brussels, of which I do not at this

moment remember the name, but near it were several of those lakelets called etangs; and there was one etang,

larger than the rest, where on holidays people were accustomed to amuse themselves by rowing round it in

little boats. The boys having eaten an unlimited quantity of "gaufres," and drank several bottles of Louvain

beer, amid the shades of a garden made and provided for such crams, petitioned the director for leave to take

a row on the etang. Half a dozen of the eldest succeeded in obtaining leave, and I was commissioned to

accompany them as surveillant. Among the half dozen happened to be a certain Jean Baptiste Vandenhuten, a

most ponderous young Flamand, not tall, but even now, at the early age of sixteen, possessing a breadth and

depth of personal development truly national. It chanced that Jean was the first lad to step into the boat; he

stumbled, rolled to one side, the boat revolted at his weight and capsized. Vandenhuten sank like lead, rose,

sank again. My coat and waistcoat were off in an instant; I had not been brought up at Eton and boated and

bathed and swam there ten long years for nothing; it was a natural and easy act for me to leap to the rescue.

The lads and the boatmen yelled; they thought there would be two deaths by drowning instead of one; but as

Jean rose the third time, I clutched him by one leg and the collar, and in three minutes more both he and I

were safe landed. To speak heaven's truth, my merit in the action was small indeed, for I had run no risk, and

subsequently did not even catch cold from the wetting; but when M. and Madame Vandenhuten, of whom

Jean Baptiste was the sole hope, came to hear of the exploit, they seemed to think I had evinced a bravery and

devotion which no thanks could sufficiently repay. Madame, in particular, was "certain I must have dearly

loved their sweet son, or I would not thus have hazarded my own life to save his." Monsieur, an

honestlooking, though phlegmatic man, said very little, but he would not suffer me to leave the room, till I

had promised that in case I ever stood in need of help I would, by applying to him, give him a chance of

discharging the obligation under which he affirmed I had laid him. These words, then, were my glimmer of

light; it was here I found my sole outlet; and in truth, though the cold light roused, it did not cheer me; nor

did the outlet seem such as I should like to pass through. Right I had none to M. Vandenhuten's good offices;

it was not on the ground of merit I could apply to him; no, I must stand on that of necessity: I had no work; I

wanted work; my best chance of obtaining it lay in securing his recommendation. This I knew could be had

by asking for it; not to ask, because the request revolted my pride and contradicted my habits, would, I felt,

be an indulgence of false and indolent fastidiousness. I might repent the omission all my life; I would not

That evening I went to M. Vandenhuten's; but I had bent the bow and adjusted the shaft in vain; the string

broke. I rang the bell at the great door (it was a large, handsome house in an expensive part of the town); a

manservant opened; I asked for M. Vandenhuten; M. Vandenhuten and family were all out of town gone to

Ostenddid not know when they would be back. I left my card, and retraced my steps.

A WEEK is gone; LE JOUR DES NOCES arrived; the marriage was solemnized at St. Jacques; Mdlle.

Zoraide became Madame Pelet, NEE Reuter; and, in about an hour after this transformation, "the happy pair,"

as newspapers phrase it, were on their way to Paris; where, according to previous arrangement, the

honeymoon was to be spent. The next day I quitted the pensionnat. Myself and my chattels (some books and

clothes) were soon transferred to a modest lodging I had hired in a street not far off. In half an hour my

clothes were arranged in a commode, my books on a shelf, and the "flitting" was effected. I should not have

been unhappy that day had not one pang tortured mea longing to go to the Rue Notre Dame aux Neiges,

resisted, yet irritated by an inward resolve to avoid that street till such time as the mist of doubt should clear

It was a sweet September eveningvery mild, very still; I had nothing to do; at that hour I knew Frances

would be equally released from occupation; I thought she might possibly be wishing for her master, I knew I

wished for my pupil. Imagination began with her low whispers, infusing into my soul the soft tale of

"You will find her reading or writing," said she; "you can take your seat at her side; you need not startle her

peace by undue excitement; you need not embarrass her manner by unusual action or language. Be as you

always are; look over what she has written; listen while she reads; chide her, or quietly approve; you know

the effect of either system; you know her smile when pleased, you you know the play of her looks when

roused; you have the secret of awakening that expression you will, and you can choose amongst that pleasant

variety. With you she will sit silent as long as it suits you to talk alone; you can hold her under a potent spell:

intelligent as she is, eloquent as she can be, you can seal her lips, and veil her bright countenance with

diffidence; yet, you know, she is not all monotonous mildness; you have seen, with a sort of strange pleasure,

revolt, scorn, austerity, bitterness, lay energetic claim to a place in her feelings and physiognomy; you know

that few could rule her as you do; you know she might break, but never bend under the hand of Tyranny and

Injustice, but Reason and Affection can guide her by a sign. Try their influence now. Gothey are not

"I will NOT go was my answer to the sweet temptress. "A man is master of himself to a certain point, but not

beyond it. Could I seek Frances tonight, could I sit with her alone in a quiet room, and address her only in

"No," was the brief, fervent reply of that Love which had conquered and now controlled me.

Time seemed to stagnate; the sun would not go down; my watch ticked, but I thought the hands were

"What a hot evening!" I cried, throwing open the lattice; for, indeed, I had seldom felt so feverish. Hearing a

step ascending the common stair, I wondered whether the "locataire," now mounting to his apartments, were

as unsettled in mind and condition as I was, or whether he lived in the calm of certain resources, and in the

freedom of unfettered feelings. What! was he coming in person to solve the problem hardly proposed in

inaudible thought? He had actually knocked at the doorat MY door; a smart, prompt rap; and, almost

before I could invite him in, he was over the threshold, and had closed the door behind him.

"And how are you?" asked an indifferent, quiet voice, in the English language; while my visitor, without any

sort of bustle or introduction, put his hat on the table, and his gloves into his hat, and drawing the only

"Can't you speak?" he inquired in a few moments, in a tone whose nonchalance seemed to intimate that it was

much the same thing whether I answered or not. The fact is, I found it desirable to have recourse to my good

friends "les besicles;" not exactly to ascertain the identity of my visitorfor I already knew him, confound

his impudence! but to see how he lookedto get a clear notion of his mien and countenance. I wiped the

glasses very deliberately, and put them on quite as deliberately; adjusting them so as not to hurt the bridge of

my nose or get entangled in my short tufts of dun hair. I was sitting in the windowseat, with my back to the

light, and I had him VISAVIS; a position he would much rather have had reversed; for, at any time, he

preferred scrutinizing to being scrutinized. Yes, it was HE, and no mistake, with his six feet of length

arranged in a sitting attitude; with his dark travelling surtout with its velvet collar, his gray pantaloons, his

black stock, and his face, the most original one Nature ever modelled, yet the least obtrusively so; not one

feature that could be termed marked or odd, yet the effect of the whole unique. There is no use in attempting

to describe what is indescribable. Being in no hurry to address him, I sat and stared at my ease.

"Oh, that's your gameis it?" said he at last. "Well, we'll see which is soonest tired." And he slowly drew

out a fine cigarcase, picked one to his taste, lit it, took a book from the shelf convenient to his hand, then

leaning back, proceeded to smoke and read as tranquilly as if he had been in his own room, in Grovestreet,

Xshire, England. I knew he was capable of continuing in that attitude till midnight, if he conceived the

"It is silly and dull," he observed, "so I have not lost much;" then the spell being broken, he went on. "I

thought you lived at Pelet's; I went there this afternoon. expecting to be starved to death by sitting in a

boardingschool drawingroom, and they told me you were gone, had departed this morning; you had left

your address behind you though, which I wondered at; it was a more practical and sensible precaution than I

"Because M. Pelet has just married the lady whom you and Mr. Brown assigned to me as my wife."

"Oh, indeed!" replied Hunsden with a short laugh; "so you've lost both your wife and your place?"

I saw him give a quick, covert glance all round my room; he marked its narrow limits, its scanty furniture: in

an instant he had comprehended the state of mattershad absolved me from the crime of prosperity. A

curious effect this discovery wrought in his strange mind; I am morally certain that if he had found me

installed in a handsome parlour, lounging on a soft couch, with a pretty, wealthy wife at my side, he would

have hated me; a brief, cold, haughty visit, would in such a case have been the extreme limit of his civilities,

and never would he have come near me more, so long as the tide of fortune bore me smoothly on its surface;

but the painted furniture, the bare walls, the cheerless solitude of my room relaxed his rigid pride, and I know

not what softening change had taken place both in his voice and look ere he spoke again.

"You had better; he often has it in his power to give useful information in such matters."

"He served me once very well; I have no claim on him, and am not in the humour to bother him again."

"Oh, if you're bashful, and dread being intrusive, you need only commission me. I shall see him tonight; I

"I beg you will not, Mr. Hunsden; I am in your debt already; you did me an important service when I was at

X; got me out of a den where I was dying: that service I have never repaid, and at present I decline

"If the wind sits that way, I'm satisfied. I thought my unexampled generosity in turning you out of that

accursed countinghouse would be duly appreciated some day: 'Cast your bread on the waters, and it shall be

found after many days,' say the Scriptures. Yes, that's right, ladmake much of meI'm a nonpareil: there's

nothing like me in the common herd. In the meantime, to put all humbug aside and talk sense for a few

moments, you would be greatly the better of a situation, and what is more, you are a fool if you refuse to take

"Very well, Mr. Hunsden; now you have settled that point, talk of something else. What news from X?"

"I have not settled that point, or at least there is another to settle before we get to X. Is this Miss

"I tell you yesand if you don't believe me, go and ask the cure of St. Jacques."

"Then your feelings are less superfine than I took them to be; you must be a coarse, callous character, to bear

"Staggering under it? What the deuce is there to stagger under in the circumstance of a Belgian

schoolmistress marrying a French schoolmaster? The progeny will doubtless be a strange hybrid race; but

"He is; but in the meantime, if his gossip be founded on less than factif you took no particular interest in

Miss Zoraide why, O youthful pedagogue! did you leave your place in consequence of her becoming

"Because" I felt my face grow a little hot; "becausein short, Mr. Hunsden, I decline answering any more

"At your exemplary composure. Well, lad, I'll not bore you; I see how it is: Zoraide has jilted youmarried

some one richer, as any sensible woman would have done if she had had the chance."

I made no replyI let him think so, not feeling inclined to enter into an explanation of the real state of

things, and as little to forge a false account; but it was not easy to blind Hunsden; my very silence, instead of

convincing him that he had hit the truth, seemed to render him doubtful about it; he went on:

"I suppose the affair has been conducted as such affairs always are amongst rational people: you offered her

your youth and your talentssuch as they arein exchange for her position and money: I don't suppose you

took appearance, or what is called LOVE, into the accountfor I understand she is older than you, and

Brown says, rather sensiblelooking than beautiful. She, having then no chance of making a better bargain,

was at first inclined to come to terms with you, but Peletthe head or a flourishing schoolstepped in with

a higher bid; she accepted, and he has got her: a correct transactionperfectly sobusinesslike and

"Do," said I, very glad to dismiss the topic, and especially glad to have baffled the sagacity of my

crossquestionerif, indeed, I had baffled it; for though his words now led away from the dangerous point,

"You want to hear news from X? And what interest can you have in X? You left no friends there,

for you made none. Nobody ever asks after youneither man nor woman; and if I mention your name in

company, the men look as if I had spoken of Prester John; and the women sneer covertly. Our X belles

"I don't know. I seldom spoke to themthey were nothing to me. I considered them only as something to be

glanced at from a distance; their dresses and faces were often pleasing enough to the eye: but I could not

understand their conversation, nor even read their countenances. When I caught snatches of what they said, I

could never make much of it; and the play of their lips and eyes did not help me at all."

"That was your fault, not theirs. There are sensible, as well as handsome women in X; women it is

worth any man's while to talk to, and with whom I can talk with pleasure: but you had and have no pleasant

address; there is nothing in you to induce a woman to be affable. I have remarked you sitting near the door in

a room full of company, bent on hearing, not on speaking; on observing, not on entertaining; looking frigidly

shy at the commencement of a party, confusingly vigilant about the middle, and insultingly weary towards

the end. Is that the way, do you think, ever to communicate pleasure or excite interest? No; and if you are

"No, you are not content; you see beauty always turning its back on you; you are mortified and then you

sneer. I verily believe all that is desirable on earthwealth, reputation, lovewill for ever to you be the ripe

grapes on the high trellis: you'll look up at them; they will tantalize in you the lust of the eye; but they are out

of reach: you have not the address to fetch a ladder, and you'll go away calling them sour."

Cutting as these words might have been under some circumstances, they drew no blood now. My life was

changed; my experience had been varied since I left X, but Hunsden could not know this; he had seen

me only in the character of Mr. Crimsworth's clerka dependant amongst wealthy strangers, meeting

disdain with a hard front, conscious of an unsocial and unattractive exterior, refusing to sue for notice which I

was sure would be withheld, declining to evince an admiration which I knew would be scorned as worthless.

He could not be aware that since then youth and loveliness had been to me everyday objects; that I had

studied them at leisure and closely, and had seen the plain texture of truth under the embroidery of

appearance; nor could he, keensighted as he was, penetrate into my heart, search my brain, and read my

peculiar sympathies and antipathies; he had not known me long enough, or well enough, to perceive how low

my feelings would ebb under some influences, powerful over most minds; how high, how fast they would

flow under other influences, that perhaps acted with the more intense force on me, because they acted on me

alone. Neither could he suspect for an instant the history of my communications with Mdlle. Reuter; secret to

him and to all others was the tale of her strange infatuation; her blandishments, her wiles had been seen but

by me, and to me only were they known; but they had changed me, for they had proved that I COULD

impress. A sweeter secret nestled deeper in my heart; one full of tenderness and as full of strength: it took the

sting out of Hunsden's sarcasm; it kept me unbent by shame, and unstirred by wrath. But of all this I could

say nothingnothing decisive at least; uncertainty sealed my lips, and during the interval of silence by

which alone I replied to Mr. Hunsden, I made up my mind to be for the present wholly misjudged by him,

and misjudged I was; he thought he had been rather too hard upon me, and that I was crushed by the weight

of his upbraidings; so to reassure me he said, doubtless I should mend some day; I was only at the beginning

of life yet; and since happily I was not quite without sense, every false step I made would be a good lesson.

Just then I turned my face a little to the light; the approach of twilight, and my position in the windowseat,

had, for the last ten minutes, prevented him from studying my countenance; as I moved, however, he caught

"Confound it! How doggedly selfapproving the lad looks! I thought he was fit to die with shame, and there

he sits grinning smiles, as good as to say, 'Let the world wag as it will, I've the philosopher's stone in my

waistcoat pocket, and the elixir of life in my cupboard; I'm independent of both Fate and Fortune'"

"Hunsdenyou spoke of grapes; I was thinking of a fruit I like better than your X hothouse

grapesan unique fruit, growing wild, which I have marked as my own, and hope one day to gather and

taste. It is of no use your offering me the draught of bitterness, or threatening me with death by thirst: I have

the anticipation of sweetness on my palate; the hope of freshness on my lips; I can reject the unsavoury, and

"Till the next opportunity for effort; and as the prize of success will be a treasure after my own heart, I'll

"Bad luck crushes bulls as easily as bullaces; and, I believe, the fury dogs you: you were born with a wooden

"I believe you; sad I mean to make my wooden spoon do the work of some people's silver ladles: grasped

Hunsden rose: "I see," said he; "I suppose you're one of those who develop best unwatched, and act best

unaidedwork your own way. Now, I'll go." And, without another word, he was going; at the door he

"Precisely; and his wife went home to her fathers; when affairs went awry, his temper sympathized with

them; he used her ill; I told you he would be a tyrant to her some day; as to him"

"Nothing extraordinarydon't be alarmed; he put himself under the protection of the court, compounded

with his creditors tenpence in the pound; in six weeks set up again, coaxed back his wife, and is

"Of course; why should the sofas and chairs of that room be held more sacred than those of any other?"

"What pictures? Crimsworth had no special collection that I know ofhe did not profess to be an amateur."

"There were two portraits, one on each side the mantelpiece; you cannot have forgotten them, Mr. Hunsden;

"Oh, I know! the thinfaced gentlewoman with a shawl put on like drapery.Why, as a matter of course, it

would be sold among the other things. If you had been rich, you might have bought it, for I remember you

I did. "But surely," I thought to myself, "I shall not always be so povertystricken; I may one day buy it back

"How is it likely? I never inquired who purchased anything; there spoke the unpractical manto imagine all

the world is interested in what interests himself! Now, good nightI'm off for Germany tomorrow

morning; I shall be back here in six weeks, and possibly I may call and see you again; I wonder whether

you'll be still out of place!" he laughed, as mockingly, as heartlessly as Mephistopheles, and so laughing,

Some people, however indifferent they may become after a considerable space of absence, always contrive to

leave a pleasant impression just at parting; not so Hunsden, a conference with him affected one like a draught

of Peruvian bark; it seemed a concentration of the specially harsh, stringent, bitter; whether, like bark, it

A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow; I slept little on the night after this interview; towards morning I began

to doze, but hardly had my slumber become sleep, when I was roused from it by hearing a noise in my sitting

room, to which my bedroom adjoineda step, and a shoving of furniture; the movement lasted barely two

minutes; with the closing of the door it ceased. I listened; not a mouse stirred; perhaps I had dreamt it;

perhaps a locataire had made a mistake, and entered my apartment instead of his own. It was yet but five

o'clock; neither I nor the day were wide awake; I turned, and was soon unconscious. When I did rise, about

two hours later, I had forgotten the circumstance; the first thing I saw, however, on quitting my chamber,

recalled it; just pushed in at the door of my sittingroom, and still standing on end, was a wooden

packingcasea rough deal affair, wide but shallow; a porter had doubtless shoved it forward, but seeing no

"That is none of mine," thought I, approaching; "it must be meant for somebody else." I stooped to examine

I was puzzled, but concluding that the best way to obtain information was to ask within, I cut the cords and

opened the case. Green baize enveloped its contents, sewn carefully at the sides; I ripped the packthread

with my penknife, and still, as the seam gave way, glimpses of gilding appeared through the widening

interstices. Boards and baize being at length removed, I lifted from the case a large picture, in a magnificent

frame; leaning it against a chair, in a position where the light from the window fell favourably upon it, I

stepped backalready I had mounted my spectacles. A portraitpainter's sky (the most sombre and

threatening of welkins), and distant trees of a conventional depth of hue, raised in full relief a pale,

pensivelooking female face, shadowed with soft dark hair, almost blending with the equally dark clouds;

large, solemn eyes looked reflectively into mine; a thin cheek rested on a delicate little hand; a shawl,

artistically draped, half hid, half showed a slight figure. A listener (had there been one) might have heard me,

after ten minutes' silent gazing, utter the word "Mother!" I might have said morebut with me, the first word

uttered aloud in soliloquy rouses consciousness; it reminds me that only crazy people talk to themselves, and

then I think out my monologue, instead of speaking it. I had thought a long while, and a long while had

contemplated the intelligence, the sweetness, and alas! the sadness also of those fine, grey eyes, the mental

power of that forehead, and the rare sensibility of that serious mouth, when my glance, travelling downwards,

fell on a narrow billet, stuck in the corner of the picture, between the frame and the canvas. Then I first asked,

"Who sent this picture? Who thought of me, saved it out of the wreck of Crimsworth Hall, and now commits

it to the care of its natural keeper?" I took the note from its niche; thus it spoke:

"There is a sort of stupid pleasure in giving a child sweets, a fool his bells, a dog a bone. You are repaid by

seeing the child besmear his face with sugar; by witnessing how the fool's ecstasy makes a greater fool of him

than ever; by watching the dog's nature come out over his bone. In giving William Crimsworth his mother's

picture, I give him sweets, bells, and bone all in one; what grieves me is, that I cannot behold the result; I

would have added five shillings more to my bid if the, auctioneer could only have promised me that pleasure.

"P.S.You said last night you positively declined adding another item to your account with me; don't you

I muffled the picture in its green baize covering, restored it to the case, and having transported the whole

concern to my bedroom, put it out of sight under my bed. My pleasure was now poisoned by pungent pain; I

determined to look no more till I could look at my ease. If Hunsden had come in at that moment, I should

have said to him, "I owe you nothing, Hunsdennot a fraction of a farthing: you have paid yourself in

Too anxious to remain any longer quiescent, I had no sooner breakfasted, than I repaired once more to M.

Vandenhuten's, scarcely hoping to find him at home; for a week had barely elapsed since my first call: but

fancying I might be able to glean information as to the time when his return was expected. A better result

awaited me than I had anticipated, for though the family were yet at Ostend, M. Vandenhuten had come over

to Brussels on business for the day. He received me with the quiet kindness of a sincere though not excitable

man. I had not sat five minutes alone with him in his bureau, before I became aware of a sense of ease in his

presence, such as I rarely experienced with strangers. I was surprised at my own composure, for, after all, I

had come on business to me exceedingly painfulthat of soliciting a favour. I asked on what basis the calm

restedI feared it might be deceptive. Ere long I caught a glimpse of the ground, and at once I felt assured of

M.Vandenhuten was rich, respected, and influential; I, poor, despised and powerless; so we stood to the

world at large as members of the world's society; but to each other, as a pair of human beings, our positions

were reversed. The Dutchman (he was not Flamand, but pure Hollandais) was slow, cool, of rather dense

intelligence, though sound and accurate judgment; the Englishman far more nervous, active, quicker both to

plan and to practise, to conceive and to realize. The Dutchman was benevolent, the Englishman susceptible;

in short our characters dovetailed, but my mind having more fire and action than his, instinctively assumed

This point settled, and my position well ascertained, I addressed him on the subject of my affairs with that

genuine frankness which full confidence can alone inspire. It was a pleasure to him to be so appealed to; he

thanked me for giving him this opportunity of using a little exertion in my behalf. I went on to explain to him

that my wish was not so much to be helped, as to be put into the way of helping myself; of him I did not want

exertionthat was to be my partbut only information and recommendation. Soon after I rose to go. He

held out his hand at partingan action of greater significance with foreigners than with Englishmen. As I

exchanged a smile with him, I thought the benevolence of his truthful face was better than the intelligence of

my own. Characters of my order experience a balmlike solace in the contact of such souls as animated the

The next fortnight was a period of many alternations; my existence during its lapse resembled a sky of one of

those autumnal nights which are specially haunted by meteors and falling stars. Hopes and fears, expectations

and disappointments, descended in glancing showers from zenith to horizon; but all were transient, and

darkness followed swift each vanishing apparition. M. Vandenhuten aided me faithfully; he set me on the

track of several places, and himself made efforts to secure them for me; but for a long time solicitation and

recommendation were vainthe door either shut in my face when I was about to walk in, or another

candidate, entering before me, rendered my further advance useless. Feverish and roused, no disappointment

arrested me; defeat following fast on defeat served as stimulants to will. I forgot fastidiousness, conquered

reserve, thrust pride from me: I asked, I persevered, I remonstrated, I dunned. It is so that openings are forced

into the guarded circle where Fortune sits dealing favours round. My perseverance made me known; my

importunity made me remarked. I was inquired about; my former pupils' parents, gathering the reports of

their children, heard me spoken of as talented, and they echoed the word: the sound, bandied about at

random, came at last to ears which, but for its universality, it might never have reached; and at the very crisis

when I had tried my last effort and knew not what to do, Fortune looked in at me one morning, as I sat in

drear and almost desperate deliberation on my bedstead, nodded with the familiarity of an old acquaintance

In the second week of October, 18, I got the appointment of English professor to all the classes of

College, Brussels, with a salary of three thousand francs per annum; and the certainty of being able, by dint

of the reputation and publicity accompanying the position, to make as much more by private means. The

official notice, which communicated this information, mentioned also that it was the strong recommendation

of M. Vandenhuten, negociant, which had turned the scale of choice in my favour.

No sooner had I read the announcement than I hurried to M. Vandenhuten's bureau, pushed the document

under his nose, and when he had perused it, took both his hands, and thanked him with unrestrained vivacity.

My vivid words and emphatic gesture moved his Dutch calm to unwonted sensation. He said he was

happyglad to have served me; but he had done nothing meriting such thanks. He had not laid out a

"You have made me quite happy, and in a way that suits me; I do not feel an obligation irksome, conferred by

your kind hand; I do not feel disposed to shun you because you have done me a favour; from this day you

must consent to admit me to your intimate acquaintance, for I shall hereafter recur again and again to the

"Ainsi soitil," was the reply, accompanied by a smile of benignant content. I went away with its sunshine in

IT was two o'clock when I returned to my lodgings; my dinner, just brought in from a neighbouring hotel,

smoked on the table; I sat down thinking to eathad the plate been heaped with potsherds and broken glass,

instead of boiled beef and haricots, I could not have made a more signal failure: appetite had forsaken me.

Impatient of seeing food which I could not taste, I put it all aside into a cupboard, and then demanded, "What

shall I do till evening?" for before six P.M. it would be vain to seek the Rue Notre Dame aux Neiges; its

inhabitant (for me it had but one) was detained by her vocation elsewhere. I walked in the streets of Brussels,

and I walked in my own room from two o'clock till six; never once in that space of time did I sit down. I was

in my chamber when the lastnamed hour struck; I had just bathed my face and feverish hands, and was

standing near the glass; my cheek was crimson, my eye was flame, still all my features looked quite settled

and calm. Descending swiftly the stair and stepping out, I was glad to see Twilight drawing on in clouds;

such shade was to me like a grateful screen, and the chill of latter Autumn, breathing in a fitful wind from the

northwest, met me as a refreshing coolness. Still I saw it was cold to others, for the women I passed were

When are we quite happy? Was I so then? No; an urgent and growing dread worried my nerves, and had

worried them since the first moment good tidings had reached me. How was Frances? It was ten weeks since

I had seen her, six since I had heard from her, or of her. I had answered her letter by a brief note, friendly but

calm, in which no mention of continued correspondence or further visits was made. At that hour my bark

hung on the topmost curl of a wave of fate, and I knew not on what shoal the onward rush of the billow might

hurl it; I would not then attach her destiny to mine by the slightest thread; if doomed to split on the rock, or

run a aground on the sandbank, I was resolved no other vessel should share my disaster: but six weeks was a

long time; and could it be that she was still well and doing well? Were not all sages agreed in declaring that

happiness finds no climax on earth? Dared I think that but half a street now divided me from the full cup of

I was at the door; I entered the quiet house; I mounted the stairs; the lobby was void and still, all the doors

"Signal of hope!" I said, and advanced. "But I will be a little calmer; I am not going to rush in, and get up a

"What an absolute hush! Is she in? Is anybody in?" I demanded to myself. A little tinkle, as of cinders falling

from a grate, replied; a movementa fire was gently stirred; and the slight rustle of life continuing, a step

paced equably backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, in the apartment. Fascinated, I stood, more

fixedly fascinated when a voice rewarded the attention of my strained earso low, so selfaddressed, I never

fancied the speaker otherwise than alone; solitude might speak thus in a desert, or in the hall of a forsaken

"'And ne'er but once, my son,' he said, 'Was yon dark cavern trod; In persecution's iron days, When the land

was left by God. From Bewley's bog, with slaughter red, A wanderer hither drew; And oft he stopp'd and

turn'd his head, As by fits the nightwinds blew. For trampling round by Cheviotedge Were heard the

troopers keen; And frequent from the Whitelaw ridge The deathshot flash'd between,'"

The old Scotch ballad was partly recited, then dropt; a pause ensued; then another strain followed, in French,

I gave, at first, attention close; Then interest warm ensued; From interest, as improvement rose, Succeeded

Obedience was no effort soon, And labour was no pain; If tired, a word, a glance alone Would give me

From others of the studious band, Ere long he singled me; But only by more close demand, And sterner

The task he from another took, From me he did reject; He would no slight omission brook, And suffer no

If my companions went astray, He scarce their wanderings blam'd; If I but falter'd in the way, His anger

Something stirred in an adjoining chamber; it would not do to be surprised eavesdropping; I tapped hastily,

And as hastily entered. Frances was just before me; she had been walking slowly in her room, and her step

was checked by my advent: Twilight only was with her, and tranquil, ruddy Firelight; to these sisters, the

Bright and the Dark, she had been speaking, ere I entered, in poetry. Sir Walter Scott's voice, to her a foreign,

faroff sound, a mountain echo, had uttered itself in the first stanzas; the second, I thought, from the style and

the substance, was the language of her own heart. Her face was grave, its expression concentrated; she bent

on me an unsmiling eyean eye just returning from abstraction, just awaking from dreams: wellarranged

was her simple attire, smooth her dark hair, orderly her tranquil room; but whatwith her thoughtful look,

her serious selfreliance, her bent to meditation and haply inspirationwhat had she to do with love?

"Nothing," was the answer of her own sad, though gentle countenance; it seemed to say, "I must cultivate

fortitude and cling to poetry; one is to be my support and the other my solace through life. Human affections

do not bloom, nor do human passions glow for me." Other women have such thoughts. Frances, had she been

as desolate as she deemed, would not have been worse off than thousands of her sex. Look at the rigid and

formal race of old maidsthe race whom all despise; they have fed themselves, from youth upwards, on

maxims of resignation and endurance. Many of them get ossified with the dry diet; selfcontrol is so

continually their thought, so perpetually their object, that at last it absorbs the softer and more agreeable

qualities of their nature; and they die mere models of austerity, fashioned out of a little parchment and much

bone. Anatomists will tell you that there is a heart in the withered old maid's carcasethe same as in that of

any cherished wife or proud mother in the land. Can this be so? I really don't know; but feel inclined to doubt

I came forward, bade Frances "good evening," and took my seat. The chair I had chosen was one she had

probably just left; it stood by a little table where were her open desk and papers. I know not whether she had

fully recognized me at first, but she did so now; and in a voice, soft but quiet, she returned my greeting. I had

shown no eagerness; she took her cue from me, and evinced no surprise. We met as me had always met, as

master and pupilnothing more. I proceeded to handle the papers; Frances, observant and serviceable,

stepped into an inner room, brought a candle, lit it, placed it by me; then drew the curtain over the lattice, and

having added a little fresh fuel to the already bright fire, she drew a second chair to the table and sat down at

my right hand, a little removed. The paper on the top was a translation of some grave French author into

English, but underneath lay a sheet with stanzas; on this I laid hands. Frances half rose, made a movement to

recover the captured spoil, saying, that was nothinga mere copy of verses. I put by resistance with the

decision I knew she never long opposed; but on this occasion her fingers had fastened on the paper. I had

quietly to unloose them; their hold dissolved to my touch; her hand shrunk away; my own would fain have

followed it, but for the present I forbade such impulse. The first page of the sheet was occupied with the lines

I had overheard; the sequel was not exactly the writer's own experience, but a composition by portions of that

experience suggested. Thus while egotism was avoided, the fancy was exercised, and the heart satisfied. I

When sickness stay'd awhile my course, He seem'd impatient still, Because his pupil's flagging force Could

One day when summoned to the bed Where pain and I did strive, I heard him, as he bent his head, Say, "God,

I felt his hand, with gentle stress, A moment laid on mine, And wished to mark my consciousness By some

But pow'rless then to speak or move, I only felt, within, The sense of Hope, the strength of Love, Their

And as he from the room withdrew, My heart his steps pursued; I long'd to prove, by efforts new; My

When once again I took my place, Long vacant, in the class, Th' unfrequent smile across his face Did for one

The lessons done; the signal made Of glad release and play, He, as he passed, an instant stay'd, One kindly

"Jane, till tomorrow you are free From tedious task and rule; This afternoon I must not see That yet pale

"Seek in the gardenshades a seat, Far from the playground din; The sun is warm, the air is sweet: Stay till I

A long and pleasant afternoon I passed in those green bowers; All silent, tranquil, and alone With birds, and

Yet, when my master's voice I heard Call, from the window, "Jane!" I entered, joyful, at the word, The busy

He, in the hall, paced up and down; He paused as I passed by; His forehead stern relaxed its frown: He raised

"Not quite so pale," he murmured low. Now Jane, go rest awhile." And as I smiled, his smoothened brow

My perfect health restored, he took His mien austere again; And, as before, he would not brook The slightest

The longest task, the hardest theme Fell to my share as erst, And still I toiled to place my name In every study

He yet begrudged and stinted praise, But I had learnt to read The secret meaning of his face, And that was my

Even when his hasty temper spoke In tones that sorrow stirred, My grief was lulled as soon as woke By some

And when he lent some precious book, Or gave some fragrant flower, I did not quail to Envy's look, Upheld

At last our school ranks took their ground, The hardfought field I won; The prize, a laurelwreath, was

Low at my master's knee I bent, The offered crown to meet; Its green leaves through my temples sent A thrill

The strong pulse of Ambition struck In every vein I owned; At the same instant, bleeding broke A secret,

The hour of triumph was to me The hour of sorrow sore; A day hence I must cross the sea, Ne'er to recross it

An hour hence, in my master's room I with him sat alone, And told him what a dreary gloom O'er joy had

He little said; the time was brief, The ship was soon to sail, And while I sobbed in bitter grief, My master but

They called in haste; he bade me go, Then snatched me back again; He held me fast and murmured low,

"Were you not happy in my care? Did I not faithful prove? Will others to my darling bear As true, as deep a

"O God, watch o'er my foster child! O guard her gentle head! When minds are high and tempests wild

"They call again; leave then my breast; Quit thy true shelter, Jane; But when deceived, repulsed, opprest,

I readthen dreamily made marks on the margin with my pencil; thinking all the while of other things;

thinking that "Jane" was now at my side; no child, but a girl of nineteen; and she might be mine, so my heart

affirmed; Poverty's curse was taken off me; Envy and Jealousy were far away, and unapprized of this our

quiet meeting; the frost of the Master's manner might melt; I felt the thaw coming fast, whether I would or

not; no further need for the eye to practise a hard look, for the brow to compress its expense into a stern fold:

it was now permitted to suffer the outward revelation of the inward glowto seek, demand, elicit an

answering ardour. While musing thus, I thought that the grass on Hermon never drank the fresh dews of

Frances rose, as if restless; she passed before me to stir the fire, which did not want stirring; she lifted and put

down the little ornaments on the mantelpiece; her dress waved within a yard of me; slight, straight, and

There are impulses we can control; but there are others which control us, because they attain us with a

tigerleap, and are our masters ere we have seen them. Perhaps, though, such impulses are seldom altogether

bad; perhaps Reason, by a process as brief as quiet, a process that is finished ere felt, has ascertained the

sanity of the deed Instinct meditates, and feels justified in remaining passive while it is performed. I know I

did not reason, I did not plan or intend, yet, whereas one moment I was sitting solus on the chair near the

table, the next, I held Frances on my knee, placed there with sharpness and decision, and retained with

"Monsieur!" cried Frances, and was still: not another word escaped her lips; sorely confounded she seemed

during the lapse of the first few moments; but the amazement soon subsided; terror did not succeed, nor fury:

after all, she was only a little nearer than she had ever been before, to one she habitually respected and

trusted; embarrassment might have impelled her to contend, but selfrespect checked resistance where

"Frances, how much regard have you for me?" was my demand. No answer; the situation was yet too new

and surprising to permit speech. On this consideration, I compelled myself for some seconds to tolerate her

silence, though impatient of it: presently, I repeated the same questionprobably, not in the calmest of

tones; she looked at me; my face, doubtless, was no model of composure, my eyes no still wells of

In truth I became aware that I was holding the said "main droite" in a somewhat ruthless grasp: I did as

"Frances, have you enough to give yourself to me as my wife?to accept me as your husband?"

I felt the agitation of the heart, I saw "the purple light of love" cast its glowing reflection on cheeks, temples,

"Monsieur," said the soft voice at last,"Monsieur desire savoir si je consenssienfin, si je veux me

A pause; then with a new, yet still subdued inflexion of the voicean inflexion which provoked while it

pleased me accompanied, too, by a "sourire a la fois fin et timide" in perfect harmony with the tone:

Some moments were taken for reflection; the answer, pronounced slowly, ran thus:

"You have always made me happy; I like to hear you speak; I like to see you; I like to be near you; I believe

you are very good, and very superior; I know you are stern to those who are careless and idle, but you are

kind, very kind to the attentive and industrious, even if they are not clever. Master, I should be GLAD to live

with you always;" and she made a sort of movement, as if she would have clung to me, but restraining herself

she only added with earnest emphasis"Master, I consent to pass my life with you."

I drew her a little nearer to my heart; I took a first kiss from her lips, thereby sealing the compact, now

framed between us; afterwards she and I were silent, nor was our silence brief. Frances' thoughts, during this

interval, I know not, nor did I attempt to guess them; I was not occupied in searching her countenance, nor in

otherwise troubling her composure. The peace I felt, I wished her to feel; my arm, it is true, still detained her;

but with a restraint that was gentle enough, so long as no opposition tightened it. My gaze was on the red fire;

my heart was measuring its own content; it sounded and sounded, and found the depth fathomless.

"Monsieur," at last said my quiet companion, as stirless in her happiness as a mouse in its terror. Even now in

"Well, Frances?" I like unexaggerated intercourse; it is not my way to overpower with amorous epithets, any

"Yes; especially when I am requested to be so in English: but why do you ask me? You see nothing vehement

"Well, monsieur, I wished merely to say, that I should like, of course, to retain my employment of teaching.

"Bon!I mean good. Thus we shall have both the same profession. I like that; and my efforts to get on will

"But, Frances, I have not yet told you what my prospects are. I have left M. Pelet's; and after nearly a month's

seeking, I have got another place, with a salary of three thousand francs a year, which I can easily double by a

little additional exertion. Thus you see it would be useless for you to fag yourself by going out to give

Frances seemed to consider. There is something flattering to man's strength, something consonant to his

honourable pride, in the idea of becoming the providence of what he lovesfeeding and clothing it, as God

"Life has been painful and laborious enough to you so far, Frances; you require complete rest; your twelve

hundred francs would not form a very important addition to our income, and what sacrifice of comfort to earn

it! Relinquish your labours: you must be weary, and let me have the happiness of giving you rest."

I am not sure whether Frances had accorded due attention to my harangue; instead of answering me with her

"How rich you are, monsieur!" and then she stirred uneasy in my arms. "Three thousand francs!" she

murmured, "While I get only twelve hundred!" She went on faster. "However, it must be so for the present;

and, monsieur, were you not saying something about my giving up my place? Oh no! I shall hold it fast;" and

"Think of my marrying you to be kept by you, monsieur! I could not do it; and how dull my days would be!

You would be away teaching in close, noisy schoolrooms, from morning till evening, and I should be

lingering at home, unemployed and solitary; I should get depressed and sullen, and you would soon tire of

"Monsieur, I could not; I like a contemplative life, but I like an active life better; I must act in some way, and

act with you. I have taken notice, monsieur, that people who are only in each other's company for amusement,

never really like each other so well, or esteem each other so highly, as those who work together, and perhaps

"You speak God's truth," said I at last, "and you shall have your own way, for it is the best way. Now, as a

After some hesitation, natural to a novice in the art of kissing, she brought her lips into very shy and gentle

contact with my forehead; I took the small gift as a loan, and repaid it promptly, and with generous interest.

I know not whether Frances was really much altered since the time I first saw her; but, as I looked at her now,

I felt that she was singularly changed for me; the sad eye, the pale cheek, the dejected and joyless

countenance I remembered as her early attributes, were quite gone, and now I saw a face dressed in graces;

smile, dimple, and rosy tint, rounded its contours and brightened its hues. I had been accustomed to nurse a

flattering idea that my strong attachment to her proved some particular perspicacity in my nature; she was not

handsome, she was not rich, she was not even accomplished, yet was she my life's treasure; I must then be a

man of peculiar discernment. Tonight my eyes opened on the mistake I had made; I began to suspect that it

was only my tastes which were unique, not my power of discovering and appreciating the superiority of

moral worth over physical charms. For me Frances had physical charms: in her there was no deformity to get

over; none of those prominent defects of eyes, teeth, complexion, shape, which hold at bay the admiration of

the boldest male champions of intellect (for women can love a downright ugly man if he be but talented); had

she been either "edentee, myope, rugueuse, ou bossue," my feelings towards her might still have been kindly,

but they could never have been impassioned; I had affection for the poor little misshapen Sylvie, but for her I

could never have had love. It is true Frances' mental points had been the first to interest me, and they still

retained the strongest hold on my preference; but I liked the graces of her person too. I derived a pleasure,

purely material, from contemplating the clearness of her brown eyes, the fairness of her fine skin, the purity

of her wellset teeth, the proportion of her delicate form; and that pleasure I could ill have dispensed with. It

appeared, then, that I too was a sensualist, in my temperate and fastidious way.

Now, reader, during the last two pages I have been giving you honey fresh from flowers, but you must not

live entirely on food so luscious; taste then a little galljust a drop, by way of change.

At a somewhat late hour I returned to my lodgings: having temporarily forgotten that man had any such

coarse cares as those of eating and drinking, I went to bed fasting. I had been excited and in action all day,

and had tasted no food since eight that morning; besides, for a fortnight past, I had known no rest either of

body or mind; the last few hours had been a sweet delirium, it would not subside now, and till long after

midnight, broke with troubled ecstacy the rest I so much needed. At last I dozed, but not for long; it was yet

quite dark when I awoke, and my waking was like that of Job when a spirit passed before his face, and like

him, "the hair of my flesh stood up." I might continue the parallel, for in truth, though I saw nothing, yet "a

thing was secretly brought unto me, and mine ear received a little thereof; there was silence, and I heard a

That sound, and the sensation of chill anguish accompanying it, many would have regarded as supernatural;

but I recognized it at once as the effect of reaction. Man is ever clogged with his mortality, and it was my

mortal nature which now faltered and plained; my nerves, which jarred and gave a false sound, because the

soul, of late rushing headlong to an aim, had overstrained the body's comparative weakness. A horror of great

darkness fell upon me; I felt my chamber invaded by one I had known formerly, but had thought for ever

She had been my acquaintance, nay, my guest, once before in boyhood; I had entertained her at bed and

board for a year; for that space of time I had her to myself in secret; she lay with me, she ate with me, she

walked out with me, showing me nooks in woods, hollows in hills, where we could sit together, and where

she could drop her drear veil over me, and so hide sky and sun, grass and green tree; taking me entirely to her

deathcold bosom, and holding me with arms of bone. What tales she would tell me at such hours! What

songs she would recite in my ears! How she would discourse to me of her own countrythe graveand

again and again promise to conduct me there ere long; and, drawing me to the very brink of a black, sullen

river, show me, on the other side, shores unequal with mound, monument, and tablet, standing up in a

glimmer more hoary than moonlight. "Necropolis!" she would whisper, pointing to the pale piles, and add, "It

But my boyhood was lonely, parentless; uncheered by brother or sister; and there was no marvel that, just as I

rose to youth, a sorceress, finding me lost in vague mental wanderings, with many affections and few objects,

glowing aspirations and gloomy prospects, strong desires and slender hopes, should lift up her illusive lamp

to me in the distance, and lure me to her vaulted home of horrors. No wonder her spells THEN had power;

but NOW, when my course was widening, my prospect brightening; when my affections had found a rest;

when my desires, folding wings, weary with long flight, had just alighted on the very lap of fruition, and

nestled there warm, content, under the caress of a soft handwhy did hypochondria accost me now?

I repulsed her as one would a dreaded and ghastly concubine coming to embitter a husband's heart toward his

young bride; in vain; she kept her sway over me for that night and the next day, and eight succeeding days.

Afterwards, my spirits began slowly to recover their tone; my appetite returned, and in a fortnight I was well.

I had gone about as usual all the time, and had said nothing to anybody of what I felt; but I was glad when the

evil spirit departed from me, and I could again seek Frances, and sit at her side, freed from the dreadful

ONE fine, frosty Sunday in November, Frances and I took a long walk; we made the tour of the city by the

Boulevards; and, afterwards, Frances being a little tired, we sat down on one of those wayside seats placed

under the trees, at intervals, for the accommodation of the weary. Frances was telling me about Switzerland;

the subject animated her; and I was just thinking that her eyes spoke full as eloquently as her tongue, when

I looked up; three fashionably dressed men were just then passingEnglishmen, I knew by their air and gait

as well as by their features; in the tallest of the trio I at once recognized Mr. Hunsden; he was in the act of

"How, monsieur?" (She still called me "monsieur"; I could not persuade her to adopt any more familiar term.)

"To you they said, 'How do you do, Wilhelmina, Crimsworth?' To me, 'So you have found your counterpart at

"I read that and more, Frances; I read that he will probably call on me this evening, or on some future

occasion shortly; and I have no doubt he will insist on being introduced to you; shall I bring him to your

"If you please, monsieurI have no objection; I think, indeed, I should rather like to see him nearer; he

As I had anticipated, Mr. Hunsden came that evening. The first thing he said was:

"You need not begin boasting, Monsieur le Professeur; I know about your appointment to College, and all

that; Brown has told me." Then he intimated that he had returned from Germany but a day or two since;

afterwards, he abruptly demanded whether that was Madame PeletReuter with whom he had seen me on the

Boulevards. I was going to utter a rather emphatic negative, but on second thoughts I checked myself, and,

"As to her, I'll come to that directly; but first I've a word for you. I see you are a scoundrel; you've no

business to be promenading about with another man's wife. I thought you had sounder sense than to get

"She's too good for you evidently; she is like you, but something better than youno beauty, though; yet

when she rose (for I looked back to see you both walk away) I thought her figure and carriage good. These

foreigners understand grace. What the devil has she done with Pelet? She has not been married to him three

"Pelet? How your head runs on Mons. and Madame Pelet! You are always talking about them. I wish to the

"I told no lie; but you are is such a hurry. She is a pupil of minea Swiss girl."

"Married! I think I shallif Fate spares us both ten weeks longer. That is my little wild strawberry, Hunsden,

"Stop! No boastingno heroics; I won't hear them. What is she? To what caste does she belong?"

I smiled. Hunsden unconsciously laid stress on the word caste, and, in fact, republican, lordhater as he was,

Hunsden was as proud of his old shire blood, of his descent and family standing, respectable and

respected through long generations back, as any peer in the realm of his Norman race and Conquestdated

title. Hunsden would as little have thought of taking a wife from a caste inferior to his own, as a Stanley

would think of mating with a Cobden. I enjoyed the surprise I should give; I enjoyed the triumph of my

practice over his theory; and leaning over the table, and uttering the words slowly but with repressed glee, I

Hunsden examined me. He did not SAY he was surprised, but surprised he was; he had his own notions of

good breeding. I saw he suspected I was going to take some very rash step; but repressing declamation or

"Well, you are the best; judge of your own affairs. A lacemender may make a good wife as well as a lady;

but of course you have taken care to ascertain thoroughly that since she has not education, fortune or station,

she is well furnished with such natural qualities as you think most likely to conduce to your happiness. Has

"That is better. Relations are often the real evil in such cases. I cannot but think that a train of inferior

After sitting in silence a little while longer, Hunsden rose, and was quietly bidding me good evening; the

polite, considerate manner in which he offered me his hand (a thing he had never done before), convinced me

that he thought I had made a terrible fool of myself; and that, ruined and thrown away as I was, it was no time

"Good night, William," he said, in a really soft voice, while his face looked benevolently compassionate.

"Good night, lad. I wish you and your future wife much prosperity; and I hope she will satisfy your fastidious

I had much ado to refrain from laughing as I beheld the magnanimous pity of his mien; maintaining,

"Oh, that is the name! Yesif it would be convenient, I should like to see herbut." He hesitated.

"Come, then," said I. We set out. Hunsden no doubt regarded me as a rash, imprudent man, thus to show my

poor little grisette sweetheart, in her poor little unfurnished grenier; but he prepared to act the real gentleman,

having, in fact, the kernel of that character, under the harsh husk it pleased him to wear by way of mental

mackintosh. He talked affably, and even gently, as we went along the street; he had never been so civil to me

in his life. We reached the house, entered, ascended the stair; on gaining the lobby, Hunsden turned to mount

a narrower stair which led to a higher story; I saw his mind was bent on the attics.

"Here, Mr. Hunsden," said I quietly, tapping at Frances' door. He turned; in his genuine politeness he was a

little disconcerted at having made the mistake; his eye reverted to the green mat, but he said nothing.

We walked in, and Frances rose from her seat near the table to receive us; her mourning attire gave her a

recluse, rather conventual, but withal very distinguished look; its grave simplicity added nothing to beauty,

but much to dignity; the finish of the white collar and manchettes sufficed for a relief to the merino gown of

solemn black; ornament was forsworn. Frances curtsied with sedate grace, looking, as she always did, when

one first accosted her, more a woman to respect than to love; I introduced Mr. Hunsden, and she expressed

her happiness at making his acquaintance in French. The pure and polished accent, the low yet sweet and

rather full voice, produced their effect immediately; Hunsden spoke French in reply; I had not heard him

speak that language before; he managed it very well. I retired to the windowseat; Mr. Hunsden, at his

hostess's invitation, occupied a chair near the hearth; from my position I could see them both, and the room

too, at a glance. The room was so clean and bright, it looked like a little polished cabinet; a glass filled with

flowers in the centre of the table, a fresh rose in each china cup on the mantelpiece gave it an air of FETE,

Frances was serious, and Mr. Hunsden subdued, but both mutually polite; they got on at the French

swimmingly: ordinary topics were discussed with great state and decorum; I thought I had never seen two

such models of propriety, for Hunsden (thanks to the constraint of the foreign tongue) was obliged to shape

his phrases, and measure his sentences, with a care that forbade any eccentricity. At last England was

mentioned, and Frances proceeded to ask questions. Animated by degrees, she began to change, just as a

grave nightsky changes at the approach of sunrise: first it seemed as if her forehead cleared, then her eyes

glittered, her features relaxed, and became quite mobile; her subdued complexion grew warm and

transparent; to me, she now looked pretty; before, she had only looked ladylike.

She had many things to say to the Englishman just fresh from his islandcountry, and she urged him with an

enthusiasm of curiosity, which ere long thawed Hunsden's reserve as fire thaws a congealed viper. I use this

not very flattering comparison because he vividly reminded me of a snake waking from torpor, as he erected

his tall form, reared his head, before a little declined, and putting back his hair from his broad Saxon

forehead, showed unshaded the gleam of almost savage satire which his interlocutor's tone of eagerness and

look of ardour had sufficed at once to kindle in his soul and elicit from his eyes: he was himself; as Frances

"Well, then, you shall have plenty of it; and first, I see you've not much more sense than some others of my

acquaintance" (indicating me with his thumb), "or else you'd never turn rabid about that dirty little country

called England; for rabid, I see you are; I read Anglophobia in your looks, and hear it in your words. Why,

mademoiselle, is it possible that anybody with a grain of rationality should feel enthusiasm about a mere

name, and that name England? I thought you were a ladyabbess five minutes ago, and respected you

accordingly; and now I see you are a sort of Swiss sibyl, with high Tory and high Church principles!"

"I'd be sorry to like it! A little corrupt, venal, lordandkingcursed nation, full or mucky pride (as they say

in shire), and helpless pauperism; rotten with abuses, wormeaten with prejudices!"

"You might say so of almost every state; there are abuses and prejudices everywhere, and I thought fewer in

"Come to England and see. Come to Birmingham and Manchester; come to St. Giles' in London, and get a

practical notion of how our system works. Examine the footprints of our august aristocracy; see how they

walk in blood, crushing hearts as they go. Just put your head in at English cottage doors; get a glimpse of

Famine crouched torpid on black hearthstones; of Disease lying bare on beds without coverlets, of Infamy

wantoning viciously with Ignorance, though indeed Luxury is her favourite paramour, and princely halls are

"I was not thinking of the wretchedness and vice in England; I was thinking of the good sideof what is

"There is no good sidenone at least of which you can have any knowledge; for you cannot appreciate the

efforts of industry, the achievements of enterprise, or the discoveries of science: narrowness of education and

obscurity of position quite incapacitate you from understanding these points; and as to historical and poetical

associations, I will not insult you, mademoiselle, by supposing that you alluded to such humbug."

"I did, Mr. Hunsden. Are you of the number of those to whom such associations give no pleasure?"

"Mademoiselle, what is an association? I never saw one. What is its length, breadth, weight, valueay,

"Your portrait, to any one who loved you, would, for the sake of association, be without price."

That inscrutable Hunsden heard this remark and felt it rather acutely, too, somewhere; for he coloureda

thing not unusual with him, when hit unawares on a tender point. A sort of trouble momentarily darkened his

eye, and I believe he filled up the transient pause succeeding his antagonist's homethrust, by a wish that

some one did love him as he would like to be loved some one whose love he could unreservedly return.

"If your world is a world without associations, Mr. Hunsden, I no longer wonder that you hate England so. I

don't clearly know what Paradise is, and what angels are; yet taking it to be the most glorious region I can

conceive, and angels the most elevated existencesif one of themif Abdiel the Faithful himself" (she was

thinking of Milton) "were suddenly stripped of the faculty of association, I think he would soon rush forth

from 'the everduring gates,' leave heaven, and seek what he had lost in hell. Yes, in the very hell from which

Frances' tone in saying this was as marked as her language, and it was when the word "hell" twanged off from

her lips, with a somewhat startling emphasis, that Hunsden deigned to bestow one slight glance of

admiration. He liked something strong, whether in man or woman; he liked whatever dared to clear

conventional limits. He had never before heard a lady say "hell" with that uncompromising sort of accent, and

the sound pleased him from a lady's lips; he would fain have had Frances to strike the string again, but it was

not in her way. The display of eccentric vigour never gave her pleasure, and it only sounded in her voice or

flashed in her countenance when extraordinary circumstances and those generally painfulforced it out of

the depths where it burned latent. To me, once or twice, she had in intimate conversation, uttered venturous

thoughts in nervous language; but when the hour of such manifestation was past, I could not recall it; it came

of itself and of itself departed. Hunsden's excitations she put by soon with a smile, and recurring to the theme

"I should have thought no child would have asked that question," replied Hunsden, who never at any time

gave information without reproving for stupidity those who asked it of him. "If you had been my pupil, as I

suppose you once had the misfortune to be that of a deplorable character not a hundred miles off, I would

have put you in the corner for such a confession of ignorance. Why, mademoiselle, can't you see that it is our

GOLD which buys us French politeness, German goodwill, and Swiss servility?" And he sneered

"Swiss?" said Frances, catching the word "servility." "Do you call my countrymen servile?" and she started

up. I could not suppress a low laugh; there was ire in her glance and defiance in her attitude. "Do you abuse

Switzerland to me, Mr. Hunsden? Do you think I have no associations? Do you calculate that I am prepared

to dwell only on what vice and degradation may be found in Alpine villages, and to leave quite out of my

heart the social greatness of my countrymen, and our bloodearned freedom, and the natural glories of our

"Social greatness? Call it what you will, your countrymen are sensible fellows; they make a marketable

article of what to you is an abstract idea; they have, ere this, sold their social greatness and also their

"And you say the Swiss are mercenary, as a parrot says 'Poor Poll,' or as the Belgians here say the English are

not brave, or as the French accuse them of being perfidious: there is no justice in your dictums."

"I tell you, Mr. Hunsden, you are a more unpractical man than I am an unpractical woman, for you don't

acknowledge what really exists; you want to annihilate individual patriotism and national greatness as an

"Where are you flying to? You are off at a tangentI thought we were talking about the mercenary nature of

"We wereand if you proved to me that the Swiss are mercenary tomorrow (which you cannot do) I should

"You would be mad, thenmad as a March hareto indulge in a passion for millions of shiploads of soil,

"Your method is to squeeze the sap out of creation and make manure of the refuse, by way of turning it to

"Better to be without logic than without feeling," retorted Frances, who was now passing backwards and

forwards from her cupboard to the table, intent, if not on hospitable thoughts, at least on hospitable deeds, for

"I suppose you are always interfering with your own feelings,and those of other people, and dogmatizing

about the irrationality of this, that, and the other sentiment, and then ordering it to be suppressed because you

Frances had stepped out of sight into a sort of little pantry; she soon reappeared.

"You do right? Indeed, no! You are much mistaken if you think so. Just be so good as to let me get to the fire,

Mr. Hunsden; I have something to cook." (An interval occupied in settling a casserole on the fire; then, while

she stirred its contents:) "Right! as if it were right to crush any pleasurable sentiment that God has given to

man, especially any sentiment that, like patriotism, spreads man's selfishness in wider circles" (fire stirred,

"I am English, too; half the blood in my veins is English; thus I have a right to a double power of patriotism,

"Yes, yes; and you, I suppose, had a mother from the moon or from Utopia, since not a nation in Europe has a

"On the contrary, I'm a universal patriot, if you could understand me rightly: my country is the world."

"Sympathies so widely diffused must be very shallow: will you have the goodness to come to table.

Monsieur" (to me who appeared to be now absorbed in reading by moonlight)"Monsieur, supper is

This was said in quite a different voice to that in which she had been bandying phrases with Mr.

"Frances, what do you mean by preparing, supper? we had no intention of staying."

"Ah, monsieur, but you have stayed, and supper is prepared; you have only the alternative of eating it."

The meal was a foreign one, of course; it consisted in two small but tasty dishes of meat prepared with skill

and served with nicety; a salad and "fromage francais," completed it. The business of eating interposed a brief

truce between the belligerents, but no sooner was supper disposed of than they were at it again. The fresh

subject of dispute ran on the spirit of religious intolerance which Mr. Hunsden affirmed to exist strongly in

Switzerland, notwithstanding the professed attachment of the Swiss to freedom. Here Frances had greatly the

worst of it, not only because she was unskilled to argue, but because her own real opinions on the point in

question happened to coincide pretty nearly with Mr. Hunsden's, and she only contradicted him out of

opposition. At last she gave in, confessing that she thought as he thought, but bidding him take notice that she

"There is no comparison between the cases," rejoined Frances; " mine was a sham fight."

"No; though I have neither logic nor wealth of words, yet in a case where my opinion really differed from

yours, I would adhere to it when I had not another word to say in its defence; you should be baffled by dumb

determination. You speak of Waterloo; your Wellington ought to have been conquered there, according to

Napoleon; but he persevered in spite of the laws of war, and was victorious in defiance of military tactics. I

"I'll be bound for it you would; probably you have some of the same sort of stubborn stuff in you.

"I should be sorry if I had not; he and Tell were brothers, and I'd scorn the Swiss, man or woman, who had

"No, no," replied I, "it means an ESPRITFORT; and now," I continued, as I saw that fresh occasion of strife

Hunsden rose. "Good bye," said he to Frances; "I shall be off for this glorious England tomorrow, and it

may be twelve months or more before I come to Brussels again; whenever I do come I'll seek you out, and

you shall see if I don't find means to make you fiercer than a dragon. You've done pretty well this evening,

but next interview you shall challenge me outright. Meantime you're doomed to become Mrs. William

Crimsworth, I suppose; poor young lady? but you have a spark of spirit; cherish it, and give the Professor the

"Well, whenever you marry don't take a wife out of Switzerland; for if you begin blaspheming Helvetia, and

cursing the cantons above all, if you mention the word ASS in the same breath with the name Tell (for ass

IS baudet, I know; though Monsieur is pleased to translate it ESPRITFORT) your mountain maid will some

night smother her Bretonbretonnant, even as your own Shakspeare's Othello smothered Desdemona."

"I am warned," said Hunsden; "and so are you, lad," (nodding to me). "I hope yet to hear of a travesty of the

Moor and his gentle lady, in which the parts shall be reversed according to the plan just sketchedyou,

however, being in my nightcap. Farewell, mademoiselle!" He bowed on her hand, absolutely like Sir Charles

Grandison on that of Harriet Byron; adding"Death from such fingers would not be without charms."

"Mon Dieu!" murmured Frances, opening her large eyes and lifting her distinctly arched brows; "c'est qu'il

fait des compliments! je ne m'y suis pas attendu." She smiled, half in ire, half in mirth, curtsied with foreign

"And that is your lacemender?" said he; "and you reckon you have done a fine, magnanimous thing in

offering to marry her? You, a scion of Seacombe, have proved your disdain of social distinctions by taking up

with an ouvriere! And I pitied the fellow, thinking his feelings had misled him, and that he had hurt himself

"On the contrary, he swayed me to and fro; so I grappled him round the waist. It was dark; the street lonely

and lampless. We had then a tug for it; and after we had both rolled on the pavement, and with difficulty

"Yes, that's my lacemender," said I; "and she is to be mine for lifeGod willing."

"God is not willingyou can't suppose it; what business have you to be suited so well with a partner? And

she treats you with a sort of respect, too, and says, 'Monsieur' and modulates her tone in addressing you,

actually, as if you were something superior! She could not evince more deference to such a one as I, were she

"Hunsden, you're a puppy. But you've only seen the titlepage of my happiness; you don't know the tale that

follows; you cannot conceive the interest and sweet variety and thrilling excitement of the narrative."

Hunsdenspeaking low and deep, for we had now entered a busier streetdesired me to hold my peace,

threatening to do something dreadful if I stimulated his wrath further by boasting. I laughed till my sides

"Don't be vainglorious. Your lacemender is too good for you, but not good enough for me; neither

physically nor morally does she come up to my ideal of a woman. No; I dream of something far beyond that

palefaced, excitable little Helvetian (bytheby she has infinitely more of the nervous, mobile Parisienne in

her than of the the robust 'jungfrau'). Your Mdlle. Henri is in person "chetive", in mind "sans caractere",

compared with the queen of my visions. You, indeed, may put up with that "minois chiffone"; but when I

marry I must have straighter and more harmonious features, to say nothing of a nobler and better developed

"Bribe a seraph to fetch you a coal of fire from heaven, if you will," said I, "and with it kindle life in the

tallest, fattest, most boneless, fullestblooded of Ruben's painted womenleave me only my Alpine peri,

With a simultaneous movement, each turned his back on the other. Neither said " God bless you;" yet on the

IN two months more Frances had fulfilled the time of mourning for her aunt. One January morningthe first

of the new year holidaysI went in a fiacre, accompanied only by M. Vandenhuten, to the Rue Notre Dame

aux Neiges, and having alighted alone and walked upstairs, I found Frances apparently waiting for me,

dressed in a style scarcely appropriate to that cold, bright, frosty day. Never till now had I seen her attired in

any other than black or sadcoloured stuff; and there she stood by the window, clad all in white, and white of

a most diaphanous texture; her array was very simple, to be sure, but it looked imposing and festal because it

was so clear, full, and floating; a veil shadowed her head, and hung below her knee; a little wreath of pink

flowers fastened it to her thickly tressed Grecian plait, and thence it fell softly on each side of her face.

Singular to state, she was, or had been crying; when I asked her if she were ready, she said "Yes, monsieur,"

with something very like a checked sob; and when I took a shawl, which lay on the table, and folded it round

her, not only did tear after tear course unbidden down her cheek, but she shook to my ministration like a reed.

I said I was sorry to see her in such low spirits, and requested to be allowed an insight into the origin thereof.

She only said, "It was impossible to help it," and then voluntarily, though hurriedly, putting her hand into

mine, accompanied me out of the room, and ran downstairs with a quick, uncertain step, like one who was

eager to get some formidable piece of business over. I put her into the fiacre. M. Vandenhuten received her,

and seated her beside himself; we drove all together to the Protestant chapel, went through a certain service in

the Common Prayer Book, and she and I came out married. M. Vandenhuten had given the bride away.

We took no bridal trip; our modesty, screened by the peaceful obscurity of our station, and the pleasant

isolation of our circumstances, did not exact that additional precaution. We repaired at once to a small house I

had taken in the faubourg nearest to that part of the city where the scene of our avocations lay.

Three or four hours after the wedding ceremony, Frances, divested of her bridal snow, and attired in a pretty

lilac gown of warmer materials, a piquant black silk apron, and a lace collar with some finishing decoration

of lilac ribbon, was kneeling on the carpet of a neatly furnished though not spacious parlour, arranging on the

shelves of a chiffoniere some books, which I handed to her from the table. It was snowing fast out of doors;

the afternoon had turned out wild and cold; the leaden sky seemed full of drifts, and the street was already

ankledeep in the white downfall. Our fire burned bright, our new habitation looked brilliantly clean and

fresh, the furniture was all arranged, and there were but some articles of glass, china, books, to put in order.

Frances found in this business occupation till teatime, and then, after I had distinctly instructed her how to

make a cup of tea in rational English style, and after she had got over the dismay occasioned by seeing such

an extravagant amount of material put into the pot, she administered to me a proper British repast, at which

Our week's holiday glided by, and we readdressed ourselves to labour. Both my wife and I began in good

earnest with the notion that we were working people, destined to earn our bread by exertion, and that of the

most assiduous kind. Our days were thoroughly occupied; me used to part every morning at eight o'clock, and

not meet again till five P.M.; but into what sweet rest did the turmoil of each busy day decline! Looking

down the vista, of memory, I see the evenings passed in that little parlour like a long string of rubies circling

the dusk brow of the past. Unvaried were they as each cut gem, and like each gem brilliant and burning.

A year and a half passed. One morning (it was a FETE, and we had the day to ourselves) Frances said to me,

with a suddenness peculiar to her when she had been thinking long on a subject, and at last, having come to a

"What now ?" demanded I, looking up from my coffee, which I had been deliberately stirring while enjoying,

in anticipation, a walk I proposed to take with Frances, that fine summer day (it was June), to a certain

farmhouse in the country, where we were to dine. "What now?" and I saw at once, in the serious ardour of her

"I am not satisfied" returned she: "you are now earning eight thousand francs a year" (it was true; my efforts,

punctuality, the fame of my pupils' progress, the publicity of my station, had so far helped me on), "while I

"Yes, monsieur, but I am not working in the right way, and I am convinced of it."

"You wish to changeyou have a plan for progress in your mind; go and put on your bonnet; and, while we

She wentas docile as a welltrained child; she was a curious mixture of tractability and firmness: I sat

"Monsieur, I have given Minnie" (our bonne) "leave to go out too, as it is so very fine; so will you be kind

"Kiss me, Mrs. Crimsworth," was my not very apposite reply; but she looked so engaging in her light summer

dress and little cottage bonnet, and her manner in speaking to me was then, as always, so unaffectedly and

suavely respectful, that my heart expanded at the sight of her, and a kiss seemed necessary to content its

"I cannot pronounce your W; besides, 'Monsieur' belongs to you; I like it best."

Minnie having departed in clean cap and smart shawl, we, too, set out, leaving the house solitary and

silentsilent, at least, but for the ticking of the clock. We were soon clear of Brussels; the fields received us,

and then the lanes, remote from carriage resounding CHAUSSEES. Ere long we came upon a nook, so

rural, green, and secluded, it might have been a spot in some pastoral English province; a bank of short and

mossy grass, under a hawthorn, offered a seat too tempting to be declined; we took it, and when we had

admired and examined some Englishlooking wildflowers growing at our feet, I recalled Frances' attention

"What was her plan?" A natural onethe next step to be mounted by us, or, at least, by her, if she wanted to

rise in her profession. She proposed to begin a school. We already had the means for commencing on a

careful scale, having lived greatly within our income. We possessed, too, by this time, an extensive and

eligible connection, in the sense advantageous to our business; for, though our circle of visiting acquaintance

continued as limited as ever, we were now widely known in schools and families as teachers. When Frances

had developed her plan, she intimated, in some closing sentences, her hopes for the future. If we only had

good health and tolerable success, me might, she was sure, in time realize an independency; and that,

perhaps, before we were too old to enjoy it; then both she and I would rest; and what was to hinder us from

I put no obstacle in her way; raised no objection; I knew she was not one who could live quiescent and

inactive, or even comparatively inactive. Duties she must have to fulfil, and important duties; work to

doand exciting, absorbing, profitable work; strong faculties stirred in her frame, and they demanded full

nourishment, free exercise: mine was not the hand ever to starve or cramp them; no, I delighted in offering

"You have conceived a plan, Frances," said I, "and a good plan; execute it; you have my free consent, and

Frances' eyes thanked me almost with tears; just a sparkle or two, soon brushed away; she possessed herself

of my hand too, and held it for some time very close clasped in both her own, but she said no more than

Ten years rushed now upon me with dusty, vibrating, unresting wings; years of bustle, action, unslacked

endeavour; years in which I and my wife, having launched ourselves in the full career of progress, as progress

whirls on in European capitals, scarcely knew repose, were strangers to amusement, never thought of

indulgence, and yet, as our course ran side by side, as we marched hand in hand, we neither murmured,

repented, nor faltered. Hope indeed cheered us; health kept us up; harmony of thought and deed smoothed

many difficulties, and finally, success bestowed every now and then encouraging reward on diligence. Our

school became one of the most popular in Brussels, and as by degrees we raised our terms and elevated our

system of education, our choice of pupils grew more select, and at length included the children of the best

families in Belgium. We had too an excellent connection in England, first opened by the unsolicited

recommendation of Mr. Hunsden, who having been over, and having abused me for my prosperity in set

terms, went back, and soon after sent a leash of young shire heiresseshis cousins; as he said "to be

As to this same Mrs. Crimsworth, in one sense she was become another woman, though in another she

remained unchanged. So different was she under different circumstances. I seemed to possess two wives. The

faculties of her nature, already disclosed when I married her, remained fresh and fair; but other faculties shot

up strong, branched out broad, and quite altered the external character of the plant. Firmness, activity, and

enterprise, covered with grave foliage, poetic feeling and fervour; but these flowers were still there, preserved

pure and dewy under the umbrage of later growth and hardier nature: perhaps I only in the world knew the

secret of their existence, but to me they were ever ready to yield an exquisite fragrance and present a beauty

In the daytime my house and establishment were conducted by Madame the directress, a stately and elegant

woman, bearing much anxious thought on her large brow; much calculated dignity in her serious mien:

immediately after breakfast I used to part with this lady; I went to my college, she to her schoolroom;

returning for an hour in the course of the day, I found her always in class, intently occupied; silence, industry,

observance, attending on her presence. When not actually teaching, she was overlooking and guiding by eye

and gesture; she then appeared vigilant and solicitous. When communicating instruction, her aspect was more

animated; she seemed to feel a certain enjoyment in the occupation. The language in which she addressed her

pupils, though simple and unpretending, was never trite or dry; she did not speak from routine formulasshe

made her own phrases as she went on, and very nervous and impressive phrases they frequently were; often,

when elucidating favourite points of history, or geography, she would wax genuinely eloquent in her

earnestness. Her pupils, or at least the elder and more intelligent amongst them, recognized well the language

of a superior mind; they felt too, and some of them received the impression of elevated sentiments; there was

little fondling between mistress and girls, but some of Frances' pupils in time learnt to love her sincerely, all

of them beheld her with respect; her general demeanour towards them was serious; sometimes benignant

when they pleased her with their progress and attention, always scrupulously refined and considerate. In cases

where reproof or punishment was called for she was usually forbearing enough; but if any took advantage of

that forbearance, which sometimes happened, a sharp, sudden and lightninglike severity taught the culprit

the extent of the mistake committed. Sometimes a gleam of tenderness softened her eyes and manner, but this

was rare; only when a pupil was sick, or when it pined after home, or in the case of some little motherless

child, or of one much poorer than its companions, whose scanty wardrobe and mean appointments brought on

it the contempt of the jewelled young countesses and silkclad misses. Over such feeble fledglings the

directress spread a wing of kindliest protection: it was to their bedside she came at night to tuck them warmly

in; it was after them she looked in winter to see that they always had a comfortable seat by the stove; it was

they who by turns were summoned to the salon to receive some little dole of cake or fruitto sit on a

footstool at the firesideto enjoy home comforts, and almost home liberty, for an evening togetherto be

spoken to gently and softly, comforted, encouraged, cherished and when bedtime came, dismissed with a

kiss of true tenderness. As to Julia and Georgiana G , daughters of an English baronet, as to Mdlle.

Mathilde de , heiress of a Belgian count, and sundry other children of patrician race, the directress was

careful of them as of the others, anxious for their progress, as for that of the restbut it never seemed to

enter her head to distinguish then by a mark of preference; one girl of noble blood she loved dearlya young

Irish baroness lady Catherine ; but it was for her enthusiastic heart and clever head, for her generosity

My afternoons were spent also in college, with the exception of an hour that my wife daily exacted of me for

her establishment, and with which she would not dispense. She said that I must spend that time amongst her

pupils to learn their characters, to be AU COURANT with everything that was passing in the house, to

become interested in what interested her, to be able to give her my opinion on knotty points when she

required it, and this she did constantly, never allowing my interest in the pupils to fall asleep, and never

making any change of importance without my cognizance and consent. She delighted to sit by me when I

gave my lessons (lessons in literature), her hands folded on her knee, the most fixedly attentive of any

present. She rarely addressed me in class; when she did it was with an air of marked deference; it was her

At six o'clock P.M. my daily labours ceased. I then came home, for my home was my heaven; ever at that

hour, as I entered our private sittingroom, the ladydirectress vanished from before my eyes, and Frances

Henri, my own little lacemender, was magically restored to my arms; much disappointed she would have

been if her master had not been as constant to the tryste as herself, and if his truthfull kiss had not been

Talk French to me she would, and many a punishment she has had for her wilfulness. I fear the choice of

chastisement must have been injudicious, for instead of correcting the fault, it seemed to encourage its

renewal. Our evenings were our own; that recreation was necessary to refresh our strength for the due

discharge of our duties; sometimes we spent them all in conversation, and my young Genevese, now that she

was thoroughly accustomed to her English professor, now that she loved him too absolutely to fear him

much, reposed in him a confidence so unlimited that topics of conversation could no more be wanting with

him than subjects for communion with her own heart. In those moments, happy as a bird with its mate, she

would show me what she had of vivacity, of mirth, of originality in her welldowered nature. She would

show, too, some stores of raillery, of "malice," and would vex, tease, pique me sometimes about what she

called my "bizarreries anglaises," my "caprices insulaires," with a wild and witty wickedness that made a

perfect white demon of her while it lasted. This was rare, however, and the elfish freak was always short:

sometimes when driven a little hard in the war of wordsfor her tongue did ample justice to the pith, the

point, the delicacy of her native French, in which language she always attacked meI used to turn upon her

with my old decision, and arrest bodily the sprite that teased me. Vain idea! no sooner had I grasped hand or

arm than the elf was gone; the provocative smile quenched in the expressive brown eyes, and a ray of gentle

homage shone under the lids in its place. I had seized a mere vexing fairy, and found a submissive and

supplicating little mortal woman in my arms. Then I made her get a book, and read English to me for an hour

by way of penance. I frequently dosed her with Wordsworth in this way, and Wordsworth steadied her soon;

she had a difficulty in comprehending his deep, serene, and sober mind; his language, too, was not facile to

her; she had to ask questions, to sue for explanations, to be like a child and a novice, and to acknowledge me

as her senior and director. Her instinct instantly penetrated and possessed the meaning of more ardent and

imaginative writers. Byron excited her; Scott she loved; Wordsworth only she puzzled at, wondered over, and

But whether she read to me, or talked with me; whether she teased me in French, or entreated me in English;

whether she jested with wit, or inquired with deference; narrated with interest, or listened with attention;

whether she smiled at me or on me, always at nine o'clock I was left abandoned. She would extricate herself

from my arms, quit my side, take her lamp, and be gone. Her mission was upstairs; I have followed her

sometimes and watched her. First she opened the door of the dortoir (the pupils' chamber), noiselessly she

glided up the long room between the two rows of white beds, surveyed all the sleepers; if any were wakeful,

especially if any were sad, spoke to them and soothed them; stood some minutes to ascertain that all was safe

and tranquil; trimmed the watchlight which burned in the apartment all night, then withdrew, closing the

door behind her without sound. Thence she glided to our own chamber; it had a little cabinet within; this she

sought; there, too, appeared a bed, but one, and that a very small one; her face (the night I followed and

observed her) changed as she approached this tiny couch; from grave it warmed to earnest; she shaded with

one hand the lamp she held in the other; she bent above the pillow and hung over a child asleep; its slumber

(that evening at least, and usually, I believe) was sound and calm; no tear wet its dark eyelashes; no fever

heated its round cheek; no ill dream discomposed its budding features. Frances gazed, she did not smile, and

yet the deepest delight filled, flushed her face; feeling pleasurable, powerful, worked in her whole frame,

which still was motionless. I saw, indeed, her heart heave, her lips were a little apart, her breathing grew

somewhat hurried; the child smiled; then at last the mother smiled too, and said in low soliloquy, "God bless

my little son!" She stooped closer over him, breathed the softest of kisses on his brow, covered his minute

hand with hers, and at last started up and came away. I regained the parlour before her. Entering it two

The said Victor was of course her own boy, born in the third year of our marriage: his Christian name had

been given him in honour of M. Vandenhuten, who continued always our trusty and wellbeloved friend.

Frances was then a good and dear wife to me, because I was to her a good, just, and faithful husband. What

she would have been had she married a harsh, envious, careless mana profligate, a prodigal, a drunkard, or

a tyrantis another question, and one which I once propounded to her. Her answer, given after some

"I should have tried to endure the evil or cure it for awhile; and when I found it intolerable and incurable, I

"I would have gone back; again assured myself whether or not his vice and my misery were capable of

I would have an answer, because I saw a strange kind of spirit in her eye, whose voice I determined to waken.

"Monsieur, if a wife's nature loathes that of the man she is wedded to, marriage must be slavery. Against

slavery all right thinkers revolt, and though torture be the price of resistance, torture must be dared: though

the only road to freedom lie through the gates of death, those gates must be passed; for freedom is

indispensable. Then, monsieur, I would resist as far as my strength permitted; when that strength failed I

should be sure of a refuge. Death would certainly screen me both from bad laws and their consequences."

"No, monsieur. I'd have courage to live out every throe of anguish fate assigned me, and principle to contend

"I see you would have made no patient Grizzle. And now, supposing fate had merely assigned you the lot of

"Not much, certainly. An old maid's life must doubtless be void and vapidher heart strained and empty.

Had I been an old maid I should have spent existence in efforts to fill the void and ease the aching. I should

have probably failed, and died weary and disappointed, despised and of no account, like other single women.

But I'm not an old maid," she added quickly. "I should have been, though, but for my master. I should never

have suited any man but Professor Crimsworthno other gentleman, French, English, or Belgian, would

have thought me amiable or handsome; and I doubt whether I should have cared for the approbation of many

others, if I could have obtained it. Now, I have been Professor Crimsworth's wife eight years, and what is he

in my eyes? Is he honourable, beloved?" She stopped, her voice was cut off, her eyes suddenly suffused.

She and I were standing side by side; she threw her arms round me, and strained me to her heart with

passionate earnestness: the energy of her whole being glowed in her dark and then dilated eye, and crimsoned

her animated cheek; her look and movement were like inspiration; in one there was such a flash, in the other

such a power. Half an hour afterwards, when she had become calm, I asked where all that wild vigour was

gone which had transformed her erewhile and made her glance so thrilling and ardenther action so rapid

"I cannot tell where it is gone, monsieur," said she, "but I know that, whenever it is wanted, it will come back

Behold us now at the close of the ten years, and we have realized an independency. The rapidity with which

we attained this end had its origin in three reasons: Firstly, we worked so hard for it; secondly, we had no

incumbrances to delay success; thirdly, as soon as we had capital to invest, two wellskilled counsellors, one

in Belgium, one in England, viz. Vandenhuten and Hunsden, gave us each a word of advice as to the sort of

investment to be chosen. The suggestion made was judicious; and, being promptly acted on, the result proved

gainfulI need not say how gainful; I communicated details to Messrs. Vandenhuten and Hunsden; nobody

Accounts being wound up, and our professional connection disposed of, we both agreed that, as mammon

was not our master, nor his service that in which we desired to spend our lives; as our desires were temperate,

and our habits unostentatious, we had now abundance to live onabundance to leave our boy; and should

besides always have a balance on hand, which, properly managed by right sympathy and unselfish activity,

might help philanthropy in her enterprises, and put solace into the hand of charity.

To England we now resolved to take wing; we arrived there safely; Frances realized the dream of her

lifetime. me spent a whole summer and autumn in travelling from end to end of the British islands, and

afterwards passed a winter in London. Then we thought it high time to fix our residence. My heart yearned

towards my native county of shire; and it is in shire I now live; it is in the library of my own home

I am now writing. That home lies amid a sequestered and rather hilly region, thirty miles removed from

X; a region whose verdure the smoke of mills has not yet sullied, whose waters still run pure, whose

swells of moorland preserve in some ferny glens that lie between them the very primal wildness of nature, her

moss, her bracken, her bluebells, her scents of reed and heather, her free and fresh breezes. My house is a

picturesque and not too spacious dwelling, with low and long windows, a trellised and leafveiled porch over

the front door, just now, on this summer evening, looking like an arch of roses and ivy. The garden is chiefly

laid out in lawn, formed of the sod of the hills, with herbage short and soft as moss, full of its own peculiar

flowers, tiny and starlike, imbedded in the minute embroidery of their fine foliage. At the bottom of the

sloping garden there is a wicket, which opens upon a lane as green as the lawn, very long, shady, and little

frequented; on the turf of this lane generally appear the first daisies of springwhence its nameDaisy

It terminates (the lane I mean) in a valley full of wood; which woodchiefly oak and beechspreads

shadowy about the vicinage of a very old mansion, one of the Elizabethan structures, much larger, as well as

more antique than Daisy Lane, the property and residence of an individual familiar both to me and to the

reader. Yes, in Hunsden Woodfor so are those glades and that grey building, with many gables and more

chimneys, namedabides Yorke Hunsden, still unmarried; never, I suppose, having yet found his ideal,

though I know at least a score of young ladies within a circuit of forty miles, who would be willing to assist

The estate fell to him by the death of his father, five years since; he has given up trade, after having made by

it sufficient to pay off some incumbrances by which the family heritage was burdened. I say he abides here,

but I do not think he is resident above five months out of the twelve; he wanders from land to land, and

spends some part of each winter in town: he frequently brings visitors with him when he comes to shire,

and these visitors are often foreigners; sometimes he has a German metaphysician, sometimes a French

savant; he had once a dissatisfied and savagelooking Italian, who neither sang nor played, and of whom

What English guests Hunsden invites, are all either men of Birmingham or Manchesterhard men,

seemingly knit up in one thought, whose talk is of free trade. The foreign visitors, too, are politicians; they

take a wider themeEuropean progressthe spread of liberal sentiments over the Continent; on their

mental tablets, the names of Russia, Austria, and the Pope, are inscribed in red ink. I have heard some of

them talk vigorous senseyea, I have been present at polyglot discussions in the old, oaklined

diningroom at Hunsden Wood, where a singular insight was given of the sentiments entertained by resolute

minds respecting old northern despotisms, and old southern superstitions: also, I have heard much twaddle,

enounced chiefly in French and Deutsch, but let that pass. Hunsden himself tolerated the drivelling theorists;

When Hunsden is staying alone at the Wood (which seldom happens) he generally finds his way two or three

times a week to Daisy Lane. He has a philanthropic motive for coming to smoke his cigar in our porch on

summer evenings; he says he does it to kill the earwigs amongst the roses, with which insects, but for his

benevolent fumigations, he intimates we should certainly be overrun. On wet days, too, we are almost sure to

see him; according to him, it gets on time to work me into lunacy by treading on my mental corns, or to force

from Mrs. Crimsworth revelations of the dragon within her, by insulting the memory of Hofer and Tell.

We also go frequently to Hunsden Wood, and both I and Frances relish a visit there highly. If there are other

guests, their characters are an interesting study; their conversation is exciting and strange; the absence of all

local narrowness both in the host and his chosen society gives a metropolitan, almost a cosmopolitan freedom

and largeness to the talk. Hunsden himself is a polite man in his own house: he has, when he chooses to

employ it, an inexhaustible power of entertaining guests; his very mansion too is interesting, the rooms look

storied, the passages legendary, the lowceiled chambers, with their long rows of diamondpaned lattices,

have an oldworld, haunted air: in his travels he hall collected stores of articles of VERTU, which are well

and tastefully disposed in his panelled or tapestried rooms: I have seen there one or two pictures, and one or

two pieces of statuary which many an aristocratic connoisseur might have envied.

When I and Frances have dined and spent an evening with Hunsden, he often walks home with us. His wood

is large, and some of the timber is old and of huge growth. There are winding ways in it which, pursued

through glade and brake, make the walk back to Daisy Lane a somewhat long one. Many a time, when we

have had the benefit of a full moon, and when the night has been mild and balmy, when, moreover, a certain

nightingale has been singing, and a certain stream, hid in alders, has lent the song a soft accompaniment, the

remote churchbell of the one hamlet in a district of ten miles, has tolled midnight ere the lord of the wood

left us at our porch. Freeflowing was his talk at such hours, and far more quiet and gentle than in the

daytime and before numbers. He would then forget politics and discussion, and would dwell on the past

times of his house, on his family history, on himself and his own feelingssubjects each and all invested

with a peculiar zest, for they were each and all unique. One glorious night in June, after I had been taunting

him about his ideal bride and asking him when she would come and graft her foreign beauty on the old

"You call her ideal; but see, here is her shadow; and there cannot be a shadow without a substance."

He had led us from the depth of the "winding way" into a glade from whence the beeches withdrew, leaving it

open to the sky; an unclouded moon poured her light into this glade, and Hunsden held out under her beam an

Frances, with eagerness, examined it first; then she gave it to mestill, however, pushing her little face close

to mine, and seeking in my eyes what I thought of the portrait. I thought it represented a very handsome and

very individuallooking female face, with, as he had once said, "straight and harmonious features." It was

dark; the hair, ravenblack, swept not only from the brow, but from the templesseemed thrust away

carelessly, as if such beauty dispensed with, nay, despised arrangement. The Italian eye looked straight into

you, and an independent, determined eye it was; the mouth was as firm as fine; the chin ditto. On the back of

"I should certainly have liked to marry her, and that I HAVE not done so is a proof that I COULD not."

He repossessed himself of the miniature, now again in Frances' hand, and put it away.

"What do YOU think of it?" he asked of my wife, as he buttoned his coat over it.

"I am sure Lucia once wore chains and broke them," was the strange answer. "I do not mean matrimonial

chains," she added, correcting herself, as if she feared misinterpretation, "but social chains of some sort. The

face is that of one who has made an effort, and a successful and triumphant effort, to wrest some vigorous

and valued faculty from insupportable constraint; and when Lucia's faculty got free, I am certain it spread

"Lucia has trodden the stage," continued Frances. "You never seriously thought of marrying her; you admired

her originality, her fearlessness, her energy of body and mind; you delighted in her talent, whatever that was,

whether song, dance, or dramatic representation; you worshipped her beauty, which was of the sort after your

own heart: but I am sure she filled a sphere from whence you would never have thought of taking a wife."

"Ingenious," remarked Hunsden; "whether true or not is another question. Meantime, don't you feel your little

"Candid, at least; and the Professor will soon be dissatisfied with the dim light you give?"

"My sight was always too weak to endure a blaze, Frances," and we had now reached the wicket.

I said, a few pages back, that this is a sweet summer evening; it isthere has been a series of lovely days,

and this is the loveliest; the hay is just carried from my fields, its perfume still lingers in the air. Frances

proposed to me, an hour or two since, to take tea out on the lawn; I see the round table, loaded with china,

placed under a certain beech; Hunsden is expected nay, I hear he is comethere is his voice, laying down

the law on some point with authority; that of Frances replies; she opposes him of course. They are disputing

about Victor, of whom Hunsden affirms that his mother is making a milksop. Mrs. Crimsworth retaliates:

"Better a thousand times he should be a milksop than what he, Hunsden, calls 'a fine lad;' and moreover she

says that if Hunsden were to become a fixture in the neighbourhood, and were not a mere comet, coming and

going, no one knows how, when, where, or why, she should be quite uneasy till she had got Victor away to a

school at least a hundred miles off; for that with his mutinous maxims and unpractical dogmas, he would ruin

I have a word to say of Victor ere I shut this manuscript in my deskbut it must be a brief one, for I hear the

Victor is as little of a pretty child as I am of a handsome man, or his mother of a fine woman; he is pale and

spare, with large eyes, as dark as those of Frances, and as deeply set as mine. His shape is symmetrical

enough, but slight; his health is good. I never saw a child smile less than he does, nor one who knits such a

formidable brow when sitting over a book that interests him, or while listening to tales of adventure, peril, or

wonder, narrated by his mother, Hunsden, or myself. But though still, he is not unhappythough serious, not

morose; he has a susceptibility to pleasurable sensations almost too keen, for it amounts to enthusiasm. He

learned to read in the oldfashioned way out of a spellingbook at his mother's knee, and as he got on

without driving by that method, she thought it unnecessary to buy him ivory letters, or to try any of the other

inducements to learning now deemed indispensable. When he could read, he became a glutton of books, and

is so still. His toys have been few, and he has never wanted more. For those he possesses, he seems to have

contracted a partiality amounting to affection; this feeling, directed towards one or two living animals of the

Mr. Hunsden gave him a mastiff cub, which he called Yorke, after the donor; it grew to a superb dog, whose

fierceness, however, was much modified by the companionship and caresses of its young master. He would

go nowhere, do nothing without Yorke; Yorke lay at his feet while he learned his lessons, played with him in

the garden, walked with him in the lane and wood, sat near his chair at meals, was fed always by his own

hand, was the first thing he sought in the morning, the last he left at night. Yorke accompanied Mr. Hunsden

one day to X, and was bitten in the street by a dog in a rabid state. As soon as Hunsden had brought him

home, and had informed me of the circumstance, I went into the yard and shot him where he lay licking his

wound: he was dead in an instant; he had not seen me level the gun; I stood behind him. I had scarcely been

ten minutes in the house, when my ear was struck with sounds of anguish: I repaired to the yard once more,

for they proceeded thence. Victor was kneeling beside his dead mastiff, bent over it, embracing its bulllike

"Oh, papa, I'll never forgive you! I'll never forgive you!" was his exclamation. "You shot YorkeI saw it

I had much ado to explain to him, with a steady voice, the stern necessity of the deed; he still, with that

inconsolable and bitter accent which I cannot render, but which pierced my heart, repeated

"He might have been curedyou should have triedyou should have burnt the wound with a hot iron, or

He sank fairly down on the senseless carcase; I waited patiently a long while, till his grief had somewhat

exhausted him; and then I lifted him in my arms and carried him to his mother, sure that she would comfort

him best. She had witnessed the whole scene from a window; she would not come out for fear of increasing

my difficulties by her emotion, but she was ready now to receive him. She took him to her kind heart, and on

to her gentle lap; consoled him but with her lips, her eyes, her soft embrace, for some time; and then, when

his sobs diminished, told him that Yorke had felt no pain in dying, and that if he had been left to expire

naturally, his end would have been most horrible; above all, she told him that I was not cruel (for that idea

seemed to give exquisite pain to poor Victor), that it was my affection for Yorke and him which had made me

Victor would have been no true son of his father, had these considerations, these reasons, breathed in so low,

so sweet a tonemarried to caresses so benign, so tenderto looks so inspired with pitying

sympathyproduced no effect on him. They did produce an effect: he grew calmer, rested his face on her

shoulder, and lay still in her arms. Looking up, shortly, he asked his mother to tell him over again what she

had said about Yorke having suffered no pain, and my not being cruel; the balmy words being repeated, he

Some hours after, he came to me in my library, asked if I forgave him, and desired to be reconciled. I drew

the lad to my side, and there I kept him a good while, and had much talk with him, in the course of which he

disclosed many points of feeling and thought I appoved of in my son. I found, it is true, few elements of the

"good fellow" or the "fine fellow" in him; scant sparkles of the spirit which loves to flash over the wine cup,

or which kindles the passions to a destroying fire; but I saw in the soil of his heart healthy and swelling germs

of compassion, affection, fidelity. I discovered in the garden of his intellect a rich growth of wholesome

principlesreason, justice, moral courage, promised, if not blighted, a fertile bearing. So I bestowed on his

large forehead, and on his cheekstill pale with tearsa proud and contented kiss, and sent him away

comforted. Yet I saw him the next day laid on the mound under which Yorke had been buried, his face

covered with his hands; he was melancholy for some weeks, and more than a year elapsed before he would

Victor learns fast. He must soon go to Eton, where, I suspect, his first year or two will be utter wretchedness:

to leave me, his mother, and his home, will give his heart an agonized wrench; then, the fagging will not suit

himbut emulation, thirst after knowledge, the glory of success, will stir and reward him in time. Meantime,

I feel in myself a strong repugnance to fix the hour which will uproot my sole olive branch, and transplant it

far from me; and, when I speak to Frances on the subject, I am heard with a kind of patient pain, as though I

alluded to some fearful operation, at which her nature shudders, but from which her fortitude will not permit

her to recoil. The step must, however, be taken, and it shall be; for, though Frances will not make a milksop

of her son, she will accustom him to a style of treatment, a forbearance, a congenial tenderness, he will meet

with from none else. She sees, as I also see, a something in Victor's tempera kind of electrical ardour and

powerwhich emits, now and then, ominous sparks; Hunsden calls it his spirit, and says it should not be

curbed. I call it the leaven of the offending Adam, and consider that it should be, if not WHIPPED out of him,

at least soundly disciplined; and that he will be cheap of any amount of either bodily or mental suffering

which will ground him radically in the art of selfcontrol. Frances gives this something in her son's marked

character no name; but when it appears in the grinding of his teeth, in the glittering of his eye, in the fierce

revolt of feeling against disappointment, mischance, sudden sorrow, or supposed injustice, she folds him to

her breast, or takes him to walk with her alone in the wood; then she reasons with him like any philosopher,

and to reason Victor is ever accessible; then she looks at him with eyes of love, and by love Victor can be

infallibly subjugated; but will reason or love be the weapons with which in future the world will meet his

violence? Oh, no! for that flash in his black eyefor that cloud on his bony browfor that compression of

his statuesque lips, the lad will some day get blows instead of blandishmentskicks instead of kisses; then

for the fit of mute fury which will sicken his body and madden his soul; then for the ordeal of merited and

salutary suffering, out of which he will come (I trust) a wiser and a better man.

I see him now; he stands by Hunsden, who is seated on the lawn under the beech; Hunsden's hand rests on the

boy's collar, and he is instilling God knows what principles into his ear. Victor looks well just now, for he

listens with a sort of smiling interest; he never looks so like his mother as when he smiles pity the sunshine

breaks out so rarely! Victor has a preference for Hunsden, full as strong as I deem desirable, being

considerably more potent decided, and indiscriminating, than any I ever entertained for that personage

myself. Frances, too, regards it with a sort of unexpressed anxiety; while her son leans on Hunsden's knee, or

rests against his shoulder, she roves with restless movement round, like a dove guarding its young from a

hovering hawk; she says she wishes Hunsden had children of his own, for then he would better know the

Frances approaches my library window; puts aside the honeysuckle which half covers it, and tells me tea is

ready; seeing that I continue busy she enters the room, comes near me quietly, and puts her hand on my

She draws a chair near, and sits down to wait till I have finished; her presence is as pleasant to my mind as

the perfume of the fresh hay and spicy flowers, as the glow of the westering sun, as the repose of the

But Hunsden comes; I hear his step, and there he is, bending through the lattice, from which he has thrust

"Crimsworth! I say, Crimsworth! take that pen out of his hand, mistress, and make him lift up his head.

"I was at X yesterday! your brother Ned is getting richer than Croesus by railway speculations; they call

him in the Piece Hall a stag of ten; and I have heard from Brown. M. and Madame Vandenhuten and Jean

Baptiste talk of coming to see you next month. He mentions the Pelets too; he says their domestic harmony is

not the finest in the world, but in business they are doing 'on ne peut mieux,' which circumstance he

concludes will be a sufficient consolation to both for any little crosses in the affections. Why don't you invite

the Pelets to shire, Crimsworth? I should so like to see your first flame, Zoraide. Mistress, don't be

jealous, but he loved that lady to distraction; I know it for a fact. Brown says she weighs twelve stones now;

you see what you've lost, Mr. Professor. Now, Monsieur and Madame, if you don't come to tea, Victor and I