n in her countenance, had I not been aware
that every friendly word, every kindly action, would be reported by her
to her confessor, and by him misinterpreted and poisoned. Once I laid my
hand on her head, in token of approbation; I thought Sylvie was going to
smile, her dim eye almost kindled; but, presently, she shrank from me;
I was a man and a heretic; she, poor child! a destined nun and devoted
Catholic: thus a four-fold wall of separation divided her mind from
mine. A pert smirk, and a hard glance of triumph, was Leonie's method of
testifying her gratification; Eulalie looked sullen and envious--she had
hoped to be first. Hortense and Caroline exchanged a reckless grimace on
hearing their names read out somewhere near the bottom of the list; the
brand of mental inferiority was considered by them as no disgrace, their
hopes for the future being based solely on their personal attractions.

This affair arranged, the regular lesson followed. During a brief
interval, employed by the pupils in ruling their books, my eye, ranging
carelessly over the benches, observed, for the first time, that the
farthest seat in the farthest row--a seat usually vacant--was
again filled by the new scholar, the Mdlle. Henri so ostentatiously
recommended to me by the directress. To-day I had on my spectacles; her
appearance, therefore, was clear to me at the first glance; I had not to
puzzle over it. She looked young; yet, had I been required to name her
exact age, I should have been somewhat nonplussed; the slightness of her
figure might have suited seventeen; a certain anxious and pre-occupied
expression of face seemed the indication of riper years. She was
dressed, like all the rest, in a dark stuff gown and a white collar; her
features were dissimilar to any there, not so rounded, more defined, yet
scarcely regular. The shape of her head too was different, the superior
part more developed, the base considerably less. I felt assured,
at first sight, that she was not a Belgian; her complexion, her
countenance, her lineaments, her figure, were all distinct from theirs,
and, evidently, the type of another race--of a race less gifted with
fullness of flesh and plenitude of blood; less jocund, material,
unthinking. When I first cast my eyes on her, she sat looking fixedly
down, her chin resting on her hand, and she did not change her attitude
till I commenced the lesson. None of the Belgian girls would have
retained one position, and that a r