een, I was
enabled, in time, to look upon that step with resignation; I afterwards
contemplated it with pride; I now regard it with positive pleasure. This
could never have been had I not resolved to resist all temptation to
brood over grief, and turned to work as a refuge from sorrow."

"And it is really true, then, that you, a lady of noble birth, dropping
from so high a sphere into one not merely humble, but laborious, find
your vocation a pleasure at last."

"It is most true," said Madeleine lifting her beautiful eyes, with such
a radiant expression that the genuineness of her reply could not be
doubted. "When one has, for years, lived upon the bare suffrage of
others, no matter how dear,--when one has had no home except that which
was granted through courtesy, compassion, charity,--you cannot conceive
how delicious it is to dream of independence, of a home of one's own!
And this sweet dream has become reality to me more speedily and more
surely than my most sanguine hopes dared to anticipate. Think, in what a
rapid, an almost miraculous manner my undertaking has prospered; by what
magic my former life (that of an aristocratic lady who employed herself
a little, but without decided results) has been exchanged for the
delights of a life of active use, bringing forth golden fruition! In a
word, how suddenly my poverty has been turned to wealth,--at all events,
to the certain promise of opulence. And the most delightful sense of all
is the internal satisfaction of knowing that I have done this _myself_,
unaided; save, indeed, by the kindness, the counsel, the invisible
protection of such a friend as you are, and such a friend as Mr. Hilson
has proved."

"We have done nothing--but watch and admire."

"Nothing?" answered Madeleine, with gentle reproach. "Who helped me
carry out all my projects? When a man's hand was needed, who stretched
out his? but always with such prudence and delicacy that I could not be
compromised. How helpless I should have been in Paris without you! And
how many mistakes might I not have committed in America without Mr.
Hilson's aid! Little did he think, when he dined at the Chateau de
Gramont, with a noble family, and asked one of its members to promise
that if she ever visited America she would apprise him of her presence
there,--little could he imagine how soon she would make a home in his
native land, and of what inestimable aid his friendship would be to
her."

"He has been truly servi