heir places. She recognized a
hundred little odds and ends which used to be downstairs and had
disappeared without her noticing their absence--things of no value which
she had often used, insignificant little articles, which had stood
fifteen years beneath her eyes and had never attracted her attention,
but which now--suddenly discovered in the lumber-room, lying side by
side with other things older still and which she could quite distinctly
remember seeing when she first returned from the convent--became as
precious in her eyes as if they had been valued friends that had been a
long time absent from her. They appeared to her under a new light, and
as she looked at them she felt as she might have done if any very
reserved acquaintances had suddenly begun to talk and to reveal thoughts
and feelings she had never dreamed they possessed.

As she went from one thing to another, and remembered little incidents
in connection with them, her heart felt as if it would break. "Why, this
is the china cup I cracked a few days before I was married, and here is
mamma's little lantern, and the cane papa broke trying to open the
wooden gate the rain had swollen."

Besides all these familiar objects there were a great many things she
had never seen before, which had belonged to her grandparents or her
great-grandparents. Covered with dust they looked like sad, forsaken
exiles from another century, their history and adventures for ever lost,
for there was no one living now who had known those who had chosen,
bought and treasured them, or who had seen the hands which had so often
touched them or the eyes which had found such pleasure in looking at
them. Jeanne touched them, and turned them about, her fingers leaving
their traces on the thick dust; and she stayed for a long, long time
amidst these old things, in the garret which was dimly lighted by a
little skylight.

She tried to find other things with associations to them, and very
carefully she examined some three-legged chairs, a copper warming-pan, a
dented foot-warmer (which she thought she remembered) and all the other
worn-out household utensils. Then she put all the things she thought she
should like to take away together, and going downstairs, sent Rosalie up
to fetch them. The latter indignantly refused to bring down "such
rubbish," but Jeanne, though she hardly ever showed any will of her own,
now would have her own way this time, and the servant had to obey.

One morning