ghost-legends, she had appreciated
Alfred's courage under calamity, she had remembered his Christian
education, and had shown him, with the rooted confidence of those
primitive days, relying on the scriptural Jehovah for aid against the
mythological Destiny. This she had done without a hint from me: I had
given the subject, but not said a word about the manner of treating it.

"I will find, or make, an opportunity of speaking to her," I said to
myself as I rolled the devoir up; "I will learn what she has of English
in her besides the name of Frances Evans; she is no novice in the
language, that is evident, yet she told me she had neither been in
England, nor taken lessons in English, nor lived in English families."

In the course of my next lesson, I made a report of the other devoirs,
dealing out praise and blame in very small retail parcels, according to
my custom, for there was no use in blaming severely, and high encomiums
were rarely merited. I said nothing of Mdlle. Henri's exercise, and,
spectacles on nose, I endeavoured to decipher in her countenance her
sentiments at the omission. I wanted to find out whether in her existed
a consciousness of her own talents. "If she thinks she did a clever
thing in composing that devoir, she will now look mortified," thought
I. Grave as usual, almost sombre, was her face; as usual, her eyes were
fastened on the cahier open before her; there was something, I thought,
of expectation in her attitude, as I concluded a brief review of the
last devoir, and when, casting it from me and rubbing my hands, I bade
them take their grammars, some slight change did pass over her air
and mien, as though she now relinquished a faint prospect of pleasant
excitement; she had been waiting for something to be discussed in which
she had a degree of interest; the discussion was not to come on, so
expectation sank back, shrunk and sad, but attention, promptly filling
up the void, repaired in a moment the transient collapse of feature;
still, I felt, rather than saw, during the whole course of the lesson,
that a hope had been wrenched from her, and that if she did not show
distress, it was because she would not.

At four o'clock, when the bell rang and the room was in immediate
tumult, instead of taking my hat and starting from the estrade, I sat
still a moment. I looked at Frances, she was putting her books into her
cabas; having fastened the button, she raised her head; encountering my
eye, she