urning passion of a lover for his mistress; the nightingale could have
found no thorn on it to press his aching poet's heart against; but
sick and weary eyes had dwelt gratefully upon it; at most it might have
expressed, like a prayer, the nun's stainless love of some favorite
saint in paradise. Cold, and pale, and sweet,--was it indeed only a
flower, this cloistered rose of the Hotel Dieu?

"Breathe it," said the gentle Gray Sister; "sometimes the air of
the hospital offends. Not us, no; we are used; but you come from the
outside." And she gave her rose for this humble use as lovingly as she
devoted herself to her lowly taxes.

"It is very little to see," she said at the end; "but if you are
pleased, I am very glad. Goodby, good-by!" She stood with her arms
folded, and watched them out of sight with her kind, coquettish little
smile, and then the mute, blank life of the nun resumed her.

From Hotel Dieu to Hotel Musty it was but a step; both were in the
same street; but our friends fancied themselves to have come an immense
distance when they sat down at an early dinner, amidst the clash of
crockery and cutlery, and looked round upon all the profane travelling
world assembled. Their regard presently fixed upon one company which
monopolized a whole table, and were defined from the other diners by
peculiarities as marked as those of the Soeurs Grises themselves. There
were only two men among some eight or ten women; one of the former had a
bad amiable face, with eyes full of a merry deviltry; the other, clean.
shaven, and dark, was demure and silent as a priest. The ladies were
of various types, but of one effect, with large rolling eyes, and faces
that somehow regarded the beholder as from a distance, and with an
impartial feeling for him as for an element of publicity. One of them,
who caressed a lapdog with one hand while she served herself with the
other, was, as she seemed to believe, a blonde; she had pale blue
eyes, and her hair was cut in front so as to cover her forehead with a
straggling sandy-colored fringe. She had an English look, and three or
four others, with dark complexion and black, unsteady eyes, and various
abandon of back-hair, looked like Cockney houris of Jewish blood; while
two of the lovely company were clearly of our own nation, as was the
young man with the reckless laughing face. The ladies were dressed and
jeweled with a kind of broad effectiveness, which was to the ordinary
style of societ