e, taught his little boy history, literature, geography,
languages, even music. Hector was a most romantic, impressionable
child, who peopled nature with fairies and elves, as he lay under
great trees and dreamed fantastic day dreams. Poetry and romantic
tales were his delight and he found much to feed his imagination in
his father's large library.

His mother's father lived at Meylan, a little village not far from
Grenoble, and there, in this picturesque valley, the family used to
spend a part of each summer.

Above Meylan, in a crevice of the mountain, stood a white house amid
its vineyards and gardens. It was the home of Mme. Gautier and her two
nieces, of whom the younger was called Estelle. When the boy Hector
saw her for the first time, he was twelve, a shy, retiring little
fellow. Estelle was just eighteen, tall, graceful, with beautiful
dusky hair and large soulful eyes. Most wonderful of all, with her
simple white gown, she wore pink slippers. The shy boy of twelve fell
in desperate love with this white robed apparition in pink slippers.
He says himself:

"Never do I recall Estelle, but with the flash of her large dark
eyes comes the twinkle of her dainty pink shoes. To say I loved her
comprises everything. I was wretched, dumb, despairing. By night I
suffered agonies--by day I wandered alone through the fields of Indian
corn, or, like a wounded bird, sought the deepest recesses of my
grandfather's orchard.

"One evening there was a party at Mme. Gautier's and various games
were played. In one of them I was told to choose first. But I dared
not, my heart-beats choked me. Estelle, smiling, caught my hand,
saying: 'Come, I will begin; I choose Monsieur Hector.' But, ah, she
laughed!

"I was thirteen when we parted. I was thirty when, returning from
Italy, I passed through this district, so filled with early memories.
My eyes filled at sight of the white house: I loved her still. On
reaching my old home I learned she was married!"

With pangs of early love came music, that is, attempts at musical
composition. His father had taught him the rudiments of music, and
soon after gave him a flute. On this the boy worked so industriously
that in seven or eight months he could play fairly well. He also
took singing lessons, as he had a pretty soprano voice. Harmony was
likewise studied by this ambitious lad, but it was self taught. He had
found a copy of Rameau's "Harmony" among some old books and spent many
hours