triumphed over her malady, which, indeed, was brought
on by grief; and after some weeks she was restored to health. During the
interval, nothing could be more kind and attentive than Leon Guichard;
his manner, of late years rough and uncivil, became softened and tender;
the hundred little attentions which illness seeks for he paid with zeal
and watchfulness; everything which could alleviate her sorrow or calm
her afflicted mind was resorted to with a kind of instinctive delicacy,
and she began to feel that in her long-cherished dislike of the
intendant she had done him grievous wrong.

"This change of manner attracted the attention of many besides the
inhabitants of the chateau. They remarked his altered looks and bearing,
the more studied attention to his dress and appearance, and the singular
difference in all his habits of life. No longer did he pass his time in
the wild orgies of debauchery and excess, but in careful management of
the estate, and rarely or never left the chateau after nightfall.

"A hundred different interpretations were given to this line of acting.
Some said that the more settled condition of political affairs had made
him cautious and careful, for it was now the reign of the Directory,
and the old excesses of '92 were no longer endured; others, that he was
naturally of a kind and benevolent nature, and that his savage manner
and reckless conduct were assumed merely in compliance with the horrible
features of the time.

"None, however, suspected the real cause. Leon Guichard was in love!
Yes, the humble steward, the coarse follower of the vices of that
detestable period, was captivated by the beauty of the young girl,
now springing into womanhood. The freshness of her artless nature, her
guileless innocence, her soft voice, her character so balanced between
gayety and thoughtfulness, her loveliness, so unlike all he had ever
seen before, had seized upon his whole heart; and, as the sun darting
from behind the blackest clouds will light up the surface of a bleak
landscape, touching every barren rock and tipping every bell of purple
heath with color and richness, so over his rugged nature the beauty of
this fair girl shed a very halo of light, and a spirit awoke within him
to seek for better things, to endeavor better things, to fly the coarse,
depraved habits of his former self, to conform to the tastes of her he
worshipped. Day by day his stern nature became more softened. No longer
those terri