ression of
countenance that I found quite inexplicable; since it was not happy,
nor was it altogether the reverse. "This must be our last meeting, and
it were better that no one knew any thing of its nature."

"Then my vanity--my hopes have misled me, and I have no interest in
your feelings!"

"I do not say THAT, monsieur; oh! non--non--I am far from saying as
much as THAT"--poor girl, her face declared a hundred times more than
her tongue, that she was sincere--"I do not--CANNOT say I have no
interest in one, who so generously overlooks my poverty, my utter
destitution of all worldly greatness, and offers to share with me his
fortune and his honorable position--"

"This is not what I ask--what I had hoped to earn--gratitude is not
love."

"Gratitude easily becomes love in a woman's heart"--answered the dear
creature, with a smile and a look that Betts would have been a mere
dolt not to have comprehended--"and it is my duty to take care that MY
gratitude does not entertain this weakness."

"Mademoiselle Hennequin, for mercy's sake, be as frank and simple as I
know your nature prompts--DO you, CAN you love me?"

Of course such a direct question, put in a very categorical way, caused
the questioned to blush, if it did not induce her to smile. The first
she did in a very pretty and engaging manner, though I thought she
hesitated about indulging in the last.

"Why should I say 'yes,' when it can lead to no good result?"

"Then destroy all hope at once, and say NO."

"That would be to give you--to give us both unnecessary pain. Besides,
it might not be strictly true--I COULD love--Oh! No one can tell how my
heart COULD love where it was right and proper."

After this, I suppose it is unnecessary for me to say, that Betts soon
brought the category of possibilities into one of certainty. To own the
truth, he carried every thing by his impetuosity, reducing the
governess to own that what she admitted she COULD do so well, she had
already done in a very complete and thorough manner. I enjoyed this
scene excessively, nor was it over in a minute. Mademoiselle Hennequin
used me several times to wipe away tears, and it is strong proof how
much both parties were thinking of other matters, that neither
discovered who was present at so interesting a tete-a-tete.

At length came the denouement. After confessing how much she loved
Betts, how happy she would be could she be his slave all the days of
her life, how miserable s