pure
affection, free from all earthly taint--unalterable--eternal. I possess
at last the love of a soul."

"Yes, my dear brother, it is yours," Isabelle replied; "and it is a
great source of happiness to me that I am able to assure you of it. You
have in me a devoted sister and friend, who will love you doubly to make
up for the years we have lost--above all, now that you have promised me
to correct the faults that have so grieved and alarmed our dear father,
and to exhibit only the good qualities of which YOU have plenty."

"Oh! you little preacher," cried Vallombreuse, with a bright, admiring
smile; "how you take advantage of my weakness. However, it is perfectly
true that I have been a dreadful monster, but I really do mean to do
better in future--if not for love of virtue itself, at least to avoid
seeing my charming sister put on a severe, disapproving air, at some
atrocious escapade of mine. Still, I fear that I shall always be Folly,
as you will be Reason."

"If you will persist in paying me such high-flown compliments,"
said Isabelle, with a little shrug of her pretty shoulders, "I shall
certainly resume the reading, and you will have to listen to a long
story that the corsair is just about to relate to the beautiful
princess, his captive, in the cabin of his galley."

"Oh, no! surely I do not deserve such a severe punishment as that. Even
at the risk of appearing garrulous, I do so want to talk a little. That
confounded doctor has kept me mute long enough in all conscience, and
I am tired to death of having the seal of silence upon my lips, like a
statue of Hippocrates."

"But I am afraid you may do yourself harm; remember that your wound
is scarcely healed yet, and the injured lung is still very irritable.
Maitre Laurent laid such stress upon my reading to you, so that you
should keep quiet, and give your chest a good chance to get strong and
well again."

"Maitre Laurent doesn't know what he's talking about, and only wants
to prolong his own importance to me. My lungs work as well as ever they
did. I feel perfectly myself again, and I've a great mind to order my
horse and go for a canter in the forest."

"You had better talk than do such a wildly imprudent thing as that; it
is certainly less dangerous."

"I shall very soon be about again, my sweet little sister, and then I
shall have the pleasure of introducing you into the society suitable
to your rank--where your incomparable grace and beauty will