his father, slowly
shaping up into manhood.

"Thou hast not been to visit Marie?" she said one day on meeting Jeanne
face to face. "She has spoken of it. Last year you were such a child,
but now you have quite grown and will be companionable. All the girls
have visited her. Her husband is most excellent."

"I have been busy with lessons," said Jeanne with some embarrassment.
Then, with a little pride--"Marie dropped me, and if I were not to be
welcome--"

"Chut! chut! Marie had to put on a little dignity. A child like you
should bear no malice."

"But--she sent me no invitation."

"Then I must chide her. And it will be pleasant down there in the
summer. Do you know that Pierre goes back with the hunters?"

"I have heard--yes."

"It is not my wish, but if he can make money in his youth so much the
better. And the others are growing up to fill his place. Good day to
thee, Jeanne."

That noon Madame De Ber said to her husband, "Jeanne Angelot improves
greatly. Perhaps the school will do her no harm. She is rather sharp
with her replies, but she always had a saucy tongue. A girl needs a
mother to correct her, and Pani spoils her."

"She will have quite a dowry, I have heard," remarked her husband.

Pierre flushed a little at this pleasant mention of her name. If Jeanne
only walked down in the town like some of the girls! If Rose might ask
her to go!

But Rose did not dare, and then there was Martin ready to waylay her.
Three were awkward when you liked best to have a young man to yourself.

How many times Pierre had watched her unseen, her lithe figure that
seemed always atilt even when wrapped in furs, and her starry eyes
gleaming out of her fur hood. Not even Rose could compare with her in
that curious daintiness, though Pierre would have been at loss to
describe it, since his vocabulary was limited, but he felt it in every
slow beating pulse. He had resolved to speak, but she never gave him the
opportunity. She flashed by him as if she had never known him.

But he must say good-by to her. There was Madelon Dace, who had
quarreled with her lover and gone to a dance with some one else and held
her head high, never looking to the right or the left, and then as
suddenly melted into sweetness and they would be married. Yet Madelon
had said to his sister Marie, "I will never speak to him, never!" What
had he done to offend Jeanne so deeply? Girls were not usually angered
at a man falling in love with them.