ving, I honoured him with a
sincerity of esteem which made my heart ache.

"As to the St. Pierre," he went on, recovering himself, for his voice
had altered a little, "she once intended to be Madame Emanuel; and I
don't know whither I might have been led, but for yonder little lattice
with the light. Ah, magic lattice! what miracles of discovery hast thou
wrought! Yes," he pursued, "I have seen her rancours, her vanities, her
levities--not only here, but elsewhere: I have witnessed what bucklers
me against all her arts: I am safe from poor Zelie."

"And my pupils," he presently recommenced, "those blondes jeunes
filles--so mild and meek--I have seen the most reserved--romp like
boys, the demurest--snatch grapes from the walls, shake pears from the
trees. When the English teacher came, I saw her, marked her early
preference for this alley, noticed her taste for seclusion, watched her
well, long before she and I came to speaking terms; do you recollect my
once coming silently and offering you a little knot of white violets
when we were strangers?"

"I recollect it. I dried the violets, kept them, and have them still."

"It pleased me when you took them peacefully and promptly, without
prudery--that sentiment which I ever dread to excite, and which, when
it is revealed in eye or gesture, I vindictively detest. To return. Not
only did _I_ watch you; but often--especially at eventide--another
guardian angel was noiselessly hovering near: night after night my
cousin Beck has stolen down yonder steps, and glidingly pursued your
movements when you did not see her."

"But, Monsieur, you could not from the distance of that window see what
passed in this garden at night?"

"By moonlight I possibly might with a glass--I use a glass--but the
garden itself is open to me. In the shed, at the bottom, there is a
door leading into a court, which communicates with the college; of that
door I possess the key, and thus come and go at pleasure. This
afternoon I came through it, and found you asleep in classe; again this
evening I have availed myself of the same entrance."

I could not help saying, "If you were a wicked, designing man, how
terrible would all this be!"

His attention seemed incapable of being arrested by this view of the
subject: he lit his cigar, and while he puffed it, leaning against a
tree, and looking at me in a cool, amused way he had when his humour
was tranquil, I thought proper to go on sermonizing him: he of