paration, once more
appeared before him, the cold dignity, repelling hardness, and
self-venerating pride of her demeanor struck him all the more painfully
because it conjured up, in contrast, a vision of soft humility,--the
gentle strength, the intellectual power, the refined tenderness of the
lovely woman who realized his ideal of maternity.

It almost seemed as though the countess had some internal perception
that Maurice weighed her in the balance of a new judgment, and found her
wanting; for she shrank beneath his gaze, and turned from him with a
sense of sickening disappointment.

Bertha, while she was struck by the marked alteration in Maurice, noted
the change with undisguised admiration. To _her_ eyes he was a thousand
times more attractive than ever, and she told him so without a shadow of
bashful hesitation.

The young French demoiselle had made up her mind to be charmed with
America, and little is required to satisfy those who are determined to
be pleased. How much of her enthusiasm was legitimately excited, and how
much was the spontaneous kindling of her own bright spirit, we will not
attempt to describe. Be it enough to say, that she frequently declared
her most sanguine expectations were far surpassed.

The countess, on the other hand, looked through a distorted medium which
filled her with disgust. She was horrified at the publicity of
hotel-life in New York. She could not tolerate the careless ease of the
persons with whom she was thrown into accidental communication,--the
confidence with which the very servants ventured to accost her. The
absence of awe, the lack of head and knee bending, in her august
presence, appeared a tacit insult. She was puzzled to reconcile the
freedom with which she was constantly addressed with the great deference
paid to her _sex_. While her _rank_ was almost ignored, the mere fact of
being _a woman_ commanded an amount of consideration unsurpassed by the
veneration paid to titled womanhood in her own land. Nothing, however,
shocked her more than the liberty accorded to young American maidens.
She found it impossible to comprehend that, educated as responsible
beings, the strict _surveillance_ over girlhood's most trivial actions,
which is deemed indispensable in France, ceased to be a matter of
necessity in America.

Immediately upon his arrival in New York the count had placed himself in
communication with Mr. Hilson; and, a few days later, received a letter
informin