you let her have her little pension regularly.
The children at Calotte, too,--they are too far from the school; mind
that they have their books.'

"'And are you indeed going from hence, Mademoiselle?' said he, in a
tone and accent so unlike his ordinary one as to make her start with
surprise.

"'Yes, to be sure. We leave the day after to-morrow.'

"'And have you no regret, Mademoiselle, to leave the home of your
childhood and those you have--known there?'

"'Sir!' replied she haughtily, as the tone of his voice assumed a
meaning which could not be mistaken; 'you seem to have forgotten
yourself somewhat, or you had not dared--'

"'Dared!' interrupted he, in a louder key,--'dared! I have dared more
than that! Yes,' cried he, in a voice where passion could be no longer
held under, 'Leon Guichard, the steward, has dared to love his master's
daughter! Start not so proudly back, Madame! Time was when such an
avowal had been a presumption death could not repay. But these days are
passed; the haughty have been well humbled; they who deemed their blood
a stream too pure to mingle with the current in plebeian veins, have
poured it lavishly beneath the guillotine. Leon Guichard has no master
now!'

"The fire flashed from his eyes as he spoke, and his color, pale at
first, grew darker and darker, till his face became almost purple;
while his nostrils, swelled to twice their natural size, dilated and
contracted like those of a fiery charger. Terrified at the frightful
paroxysm of passion before her, the timid girl endeavored to allay his
anger, and replied,--

"'You know well, Leon, that my brother has ever treated you as a
friend--'

"'He a friend!' cried he, stamping on the ground, while a look of
demoniac malice lit up his features. 'He, who talks to me as though
I were a vassal, a slave; he, who deems his merest word of approval a
recompense for all my labor, all my toil; he, whose very glance shoots
into my heart like a dagger! Think you I forgive him the contemptuous
treatment of nineteen years, or that I can pardon insults because they
have grown into habits? Hear me!'--he grasped her wrist rigidly as he
spoke, and continued, 'I have sworn an oath to be revenged on him, from
the hour when, a boy scarce eight years old, he struck me in the face,
and called me canaille. I vowed his ruin. I toiled for it, I strove for
it, and I succeeded,--ay, succeeded. I obtained from the Convention the
confiscation of your lands,--