e
when they are not the real ones. As to connecting the girl's visits to
the ex-bath-boy--which Mademoiselle Therese thought were due merely to
a passing whim--and the cessation of rides, she never dreamed of such a
thing.

The result of the boy's inquiries at St. Malo and Parame were fruitless
at first, and Barbara had paid several visits, and was beginning to
feel almost as anxious as the mother and son themselves before the boy
succeeded in his search. But one afternoon when she arrived she found
him beaming with happiness, having found at least a temporary job at
Parame, and one which probably would become permanent.

"That news," she said, shaking the boy's hand warmly in congratulation,
"will send me home quite light-hearted."

But somehow, though she was honestly glad, it did not make her feel as
happy as it should have done, and she thought the road back had never
seemed so long, nor the sun so hot. She would gladly have missed her
evening lesson and supper, but she feared that of the two evils
Mademoiselle Therese's questions would probably be the worse. Indeed,
when in the best of health, that lady's conversation was apt to be
wearisome, but when one felt--as Barbara had for the past few
days--that bed was the only satisfactory place, and _that_ even harder
than it used to be, then mademoiselle's chatter became a penance not
easily borne.

"You are getting tired of us, and beginning to want home," the
Frenchwoman said in rather offended tones two days later, when Barbara
declined to go with her to Dol. "I am sorry we have not been able to
amuse you sufficiently well."

"Oh, that isn't it at all," Barbara assured her. "It is just that I
have never known such hot weather before, and it makes me disinclined
for things."

"You are looking whitish, but that is because you have been staying in
the house too much lately. Dol would do you good and cheer you up."

"Another time," the girl pleaded. "I think I won't go to-day," and the
lady left her with a shrug, and the remark that she would not go
either. She was evidently annoyed, and Barbara wondered what she
should do to atone for it; but later in the day she had a visit that
drove the thoughts of Dol from both her mind and mademoiselle's.

She was sitting in her room trying to read, and wondering why she could
not understand the paragraph, though she had read it three or four
times, when Mademoiselle Therese came running in excitedly to say there