l thought as little as possible, though fearful glimpses would
obtrude themselves on her uneasy imagination. At first she had employed
a physician; but her means could not pay for his visits, nor did the
situation of her grandmother render them very necessary. He promised to
call occasionally without fee, and, for a short time, he kept his word,
but his benevolence soon wearied of performing offices that really were
not required. By the end of a month, Adrienne saw him no more.

As long as her daily toil seemed to supply her own little wants,
Adrienne was content to watch on, weep on, pray on, in waiting for the
moment she so much dreaded; that which was to sever the last tie she
appeared to possess on earth. It is true she had a few very distant
relatives, but they had emigrated to America, at the commencement of
the revolution of 1789, and all trace of them had long been lost. In
point of fact, the men were dead, and the females were grandmothers
with English names, and were almost ignorant of any such persons as the
de la Rocheaimards. From these Adrienne had nothing to expect. To her,
they were as beings in another planet. But the trousseau was nearly
exhausted, and the stock of ready money was reduced to a single
napoleon, and a little change. It was absolutely necessary to decide on
some new scheme for a temporary subsistence, and that without delay.

Among the valuables of the trousseau was a piece of exquisite lace,
that had never been even worn. The vicomtesse had a pride in looking at
it, for it showed the traces of her former wealth and magnificence, and
she would never consent to part with it. Adrienne had carried it once
to her employer, the milliner, with the intention of disposing of it,
but the price offered was so greatly below what she knew to be the true
value, that she would not sell it. Her own wardrobe, however, was going
fast, nothing disposable remained of her grandmother's, and this piece
of lace must be turned to account in some way. While reflecting on
these dire necessities, Adrienne remembered our family. She knew to
what shop we had been sent in Paris, and she now determined to purchase
one of us, to bestow on the handkerchief selected some of her own
beautiful needle work, to trim it with this lace, and, by the sale, to
raise a sum sufficient for all her grandmother's earthly wants.

Generous souls are usually ardent. Their hopes keep pace with their
wishes, and, as Adrienne had heard th