e person to whom she
addressed herself, "for though she is so proud, yet the other is very
selfish. Caliste may speak rudely, but she will do you a kindness; as to
Lisette, she is wrapped up in selfishness and conceit."

Such were the comments made upon two of the chosen maidens of Salency;
and whoever will remember that the heart is full of evil, will no longer
wonder at the faults of these young girls. Both Caliste and Lisette kept
up an outward semblance of virtue, the one from pride, the other from the
desire of being flattered and admired; but as the motives which guided
their actions were not all powerful, the moment they were really tried
they failed in influencing their conduct.

When left alone, Margoton and Dorsain had much to say on family matters,
and the mother expatiated largely upon the late election. "Brother," she
said, "Caliste and Lisette have by this shown you how well the villagers
regard them. Mimi, too, is an universal favourite; but my poor
Victorine,--is a heretic, brother, a decided heretic. Never shall I
forget the day that our sister Pauline took the babe to her home; but I
thought I was dying then, and my husband thought so too, and what could
Valmont do with a young babe? Pauline was not a heretic then--she became
one about a year afterwards; but somehow or other we forgot to send for
Victorine, or we never had a good opportunity of fetching home the child.
Thus things went on, and never shall I forget our astonishment on our
first seeing our daughter, when the deaths of Pauline and her husband
caused her suddenly to be restored to us.

"Victorine was then fifteen, and mistress of twenty louis in gold; but on
account of her heresy, Monsieur le Prieur took it from her for the
benefit of the church, and to expend in masses for Pauline and Basil's
souls, but he allows us to keep Victorine with us, at least till she is
one and twenty, for he hopes a constant communion with Catholics will, in
the end, work her conversion. When she is one and twenty, she must
either renounce her heresy publicly in the chapel of St. Medard, or else
be banished from Salency."

Margoton then went on to speak of her other daughters, and, encouraged to
talk by Dorsain, she acknowledged that the proud spirit of Caliste made
her often tremble before it, whilst the excessive self-conceit of Lisette
prevented any reproof being of use to her. Mimi she mentioned with less
pain; her faults being still those of a c