g you,"
said Madame Mignon, "since you compensate me with the pleasure of
hearing you."

Modeste, determined to think Canalis sublime, sat motionless with
amazement; the embroidery slipped from her fingers, which held it only
by the needleful of thread.

"Modeste, this is Monsieur Ernest de La Briere. Monsieur Ernest, my
daughter," said the count, thinking the secretary too much in the
background.

The young girl bowed coldly, giving Ernest a glance that was meant to
prove to every one present that she saw him for the first time.

"Pardon me, monsieur," she said without blushing; "the great admiration
I feel for the greatest of our poets is, in the eyes of my friends, a
sufficient excuse for seeing only him."

The pure, fresh voice, with accents like that of Mademoiselle Mars,
charmed the poor secretary, already dazzled by Modeste's beauty, and
in his sudden surprise he answered by a phrase that would have been
sublime, had it been true.

"He is my friend," he said.

"Ah, then you do pardon me," she replied.

"He is more than a friend," cried Canalis taking Ernest by the shoulder
and leaning upon it like Alexander on Hephaestion, "we love each other
as though we were brothers--"

Madame Latournelle cut short the poet's speech by pointing to Ernest
and saying aloud to her husband, "Surely that is the gentleman we saw at
church."

"Why not?" said Charles Mignon, quickly, observing that Ernest reddened.

Modeste coldly took up her embroidery.

"Madame may be right; I have been twice in Havre lately," replied La
Briere, sitting down by Dumay.

Canalis, charmed with Modeste's beauty, mistook the admiration she
expressed, and flattered himself he had succeeded in producing his
desired effects.

"I should think a man without heart, if he had no devoted friend near
him," said Modeste, to pick up the conversation interrupted by Madame
Latournelle's awkwardness.

"Mademoiselle, Ernest's devotion makes me almost think myself worth
something," said Canalis; "for my dear Pylades is full of talent; he
was the right hand of the greatest minister we have had since the peace.
Though he holds a fine position, he is good enough to be my tutor in the
science of politics; he teaches me to conduct affairs and feeds me with
his experience, when all the while he might aspire to a much better
situation. Oh! he is worth far more than I." At a gesture from Modeste
he continued gracefully: "Yes, the poetry that I express he ca