province,--but she was now getting on in years, and was often very weary
of her daily employment, and yet she had no one to whom she could
occasionally entrust her duties.

It was one evening, when complaining of this to her husband, that Madame
D'Elsac suddenly exclaimed, "What say you, Dorsain, of sending to Salency
for one of your sister Margoton Durocher's grown up daughters; as Pauline
has left no family, we may ask Margoton to let us have one of her three
good-sized girls? Had we not better have one of your own nieces,
Dorsain, than a stranger?"

Though Madame D'Elsac, having once thought of this plan, was ready and
willing to put it into execution without a thought, not so her worthy
husband. He must first weigh the affair steadily in his mind, and repeat
over and over again to his wife, that if once they took a relative into
their house, they could not part with her as a hired attendant if she did
not suit them; "and then you know, Delphine," he added, "you and I are so
happy and comfortable together, that I should not like to invite one to
our home who might make that home disagreeable."

Madame D'Elsac's disposition was of that easy kind that she allowed her
worthy partner almost to talk himself against the arrangement altogether,
and the matter would probably have dropped without any consequences, had
not Dorsain mentioned it to a neighbour, who had been at Salency two
years before, and who had been highly delighted with the lovely daughters
of Madame Durocher. So the affair was settled, that D'Elsac should
invite a niece to wait upon his wife, and to reside with them on their
pretty little farm, near Grenoble, on the borders of Swisserland. The
next point in question was, whether this selected niece should be
Caliste, Victorine, or Lisette, for as to little Mimi, the fourth
daughter of Madame Durocher, she was considered altogether too young for
the office.

Monsieur D'Elsac had not seen his sister nor her children for many years,
and it is probable, that this slow-minded gentleman would have pondered
till his death, upon which he should favour of his nieces, if the quicker
Delphine had not proposed that he should go over to Salency and see the
young girls before he made his selection. So the affair now really
appeared likely to come to some settlement after all, particularly as
Monsieur D'Elsac did arrive safely in Salency, mounted on one of his own
farm horses, from which he alighted at the door of