eflective one, for the same length of
time. Yet, having intimated that her appearance was peculiar, as
being unlike that of her Flemish companions, I have little more to say
respecting it; I can pronounce no encomiums on her beauty, for she was
not beautiful; nor offer condolence on her plainness, for neither
was she plain; a careworn character of forehead, and a corresponding
moulding of the mouth, struck me with a sentiment resembling surprise,
but these traits would probably have passed unnoticed by any less
crotchety observer.

Now, reader, though I have spent more than a page in describing Mdlle.
Henri, I know well enough that I have left on your mind's eye no
distinct picture of her; I have not painted her complexion, nor her
eyes, nor her hair, nor even drawn the outline of her shape. You cannot
tell whether her nose was aquiline or retrousse, whether her chin was
long or short, her face square or oval; nor could I the first day,
and it is not my intention to communicate to you at once a knowledge I
myself gained by little and little.

I gave a short exercise: which they all wrote down. I saw the new pupil
was puzzled at first with the novelty of the form and language; once
or twice she looked at me with a sort of painful solicitude, as not
comprehending at all what I meant; then she was not ready when the
others were, she could not write her phrases so fast as they did; I
would not help her, I went on relentless. She looked at me; her eye
said most plainly, "I cannot follow you." I disregarded the appeal, and,
carelessly leaning back in my chair, glancing from time to time with a
NONCHALANT air out of the window, I dictated a little faster. On looking
towards her again, I perceived her face clouded with embarrassment, but
she was still writing on most diligently; I paused a few seconds; she
employed the interval in hurriedly re-perusing what she had written, and
shame and discomfiture were apparent in her countenance; she evidently
found she had made great nonsense of it. In ten minutes more the
dictation was complete, and, having allowed a brief space in which to
correct it, I took their books; it was with a reluctant hand Mdlle.
Henri gave up hers, but, having once yielded it to my possession, she
composed her anxious face, as if, for the present she had resolved to
dismiss regret, and had made up her mind to be thought unprecedentedly
stupid. Glancing over her exercise, I found that several lines had been
o