xplain everything, Annette," said Beecher, who in his
confusion was eager to throw any amount of burden or responsibility upon
another; "you'll tell her whatever you like as to the cause of his going
away, and I 'll swear to it."

"Monsieur need not give himself any trouble," was the ready answer; "all
shall be cared for."

CHAPTER XXXI. EXPLANATIONS.

What a sad pity it is that the great faculty of "making things
comfortable," that gifted power which blends the announcement with the
explanation of misfortune, should be almost limited to that narrow
guild in life to which Mademoiselle Annette belonged! The happy knack
of half-informing and all-mystifying would be invaluable on the Treasury
benches; and great proficients as some of our public men are in this
walk, how immeasurably do they fall short of the dexterity of the
"soubrette"!

So neatly and so cleverly had Annette performed her task, that when Miss
Davis met Beecher at breakfast, she felt that a species of reserve was
necessary as to the reasons of her father's flight; that, as he had not
directly communicated with herself, her duty was simply to accept of the
guidance he had dictated to her. Besides this, let it be owned, she had
not yet rallied from the overwhelming astonishment of her first meeting
with her father, so utterly was he unlike all that her imagination had
pictured him! Nothing could be more affectionate, nothing kinder, than
his reception; a thoughtful anxiety for her comfort pervaded all he
said. The gloomy old Tirlemont even caught up an air of home as she
passed the threshold; but still he was neither in look, manner, nor
appearance what she fancied. All his self-restraint could not gloss over
his vulgarity, nor all his reserve conceal his defects in breeding. His
short, dictatorial manner with the servants,--his ever-present readiness
to confront nobody saw what peril,--a suspectful insistence upon this
or that mark of deference as a right of which he might possibly be
defrauded,--all gave to his bearing a tone of insolent defiance that at
once terrified and repelled her.

To all her eager questionings as to their future life, where and how it
was to be passed, he would only answer vaguely or evasively. He met her
inquiries about the families and friends of her schoolfellows in the
same way. Of her pleasures and pursuits, her love of music, and her
skill in drawing, he could not even speak with those conventionalities
that disgui