ver over,
I looked about for balm to that wound also, and found some nearer home
than at Gilead. Reason was my physician; she began by proving that the
prize I had missed was of little value: she admitted that, physically,
Zoraide might have suited me, but affirmed that our souls were not in
harmony, and that discord must have resulted from the union of her mind
with mine. She then insisted on the suppression of all repining,
and commanded me rather to rejoice that I had escaped a snare. Her
medicament did me good. I felt its strengthening effect when I met the
directress the next day; its stringent operation on the nerves suffered
no trembling, no faltering; it enabled me to face her with firmness,
to pass her with ease. She had held out her hand to me--that I did not
choose to see. She had greeted me with a charming smile--it fell on my
heart like light on stone. I passed on to the estrade, she followed me;
her eye, fastened on my face, demanded of every feature the meaning of
my changed and careless manner. "I will give her an answer," thought I;
and, meeting her gaze full, arresting, fixing her glance, I shot into
her eyes, from my own, a look, where there was no respect, no love,
no tenderness, no gallantry; where the strictest analysis could detect
nothing but scorn, hardihood, irony. I made her bear it, and feel it;
her steady countenance did not change, but her colour rose, and she
approached me as if fascinated. She stepped on to the estrade, and
stood close by my side; she had nothing to say. I would not relieve her
embarrassment, and negligently turned over the leaves of a book.

"I hope you feel quite recovered to-day," at last she said, in a low
tone.

"And I, mademoiselle, hope that you took no cold last night in
consequence of your late walk in the garden."

Quick enough of comprehension, she understood me directly; her face
became a little blanched--a very little--but no muscle in her rather
marked features moved; and, calm and self-possessed, she retired from
the estrade, taking her seat quietly at a little distance, and occupying
herself with netting a purse. I proceeded to give my lesson; it was a
"Composition," i.e., I dictated certain general questions, of which the
pupils were to compose the answers from memory, access to books being
forbidden. While Mdlle. Eulalie, Hortense, Caroline, &c., were pondering
over the string of rather abstruse grammatical interrogatories I had
propounded, I was at l