me as the treacherous spawn of a perfidious country, he,
in the same breath, anathematized Zoraide Reuter; he termed her "femme
sotte et vicieuse," who, in a fit of lewd caprice, had thrown herself
away on an unprincipled adventurer; directing the point of the last
appellation by a furious blow, obliquely aimed at me. I left him in the
act of bounding elastically out of the bed into which I had tucked him;
but, as I took the precaution of turning the key in the door behind me,
I retired to my own room, assured of his safe custody till the morning,
and free to draw undisturbed conclusions from the scene I had just
witnessed.

Now, it was precisely about this time that the directress, stung by
my coldness, bewitched by my scorn, and excited by the preference she
suspected me of cherishing for another, had fallen into a snare of her
own laying--was herself caught in the meshes of the very passion with
which she wished to entangle me. Conscious of the state of things in
that quarter, I gathered, from the condition in which I saw my
employer, that his lady-love had betrayed the alienation of her
affections--inclinations, rather, I would say; affection is a word at
once too warm and too pure for the subject--had let him see that the
cavity of her hollow heart, emptied of his image, was now occupied by
that of his usher. It was not without some surprise that I found
myself obliged to entertain this view of the case; Pelet, with
his old-established school, was so convenient, so profitable a
match--Zoraide was so calculating, so interested a woman--I wondered
mere personal preference could, in her mind, have prevailed for a moment
over worldly advantage: yet, it was evident, from what Pelet said, that,
not only had she repulsed him, but had even let slip expressions of
partiality for me. One of his drunken exclamations was, "And the
jade doats on your youth, you raw blockhead! and talks of your noble
deportment, as she calls your accursed English formality--and your pure
morals, forsooth! des moeurs de Caton a-t-elle dit--sotte!" Hers, I
thought, must be a curious soul, where in spite of a strong, natural
tendency to estimate unduly advantages of wealth and station, the
sardonic disdain of a fortuneless subordinate had wrought a deeper
impression than could be imprinted by the most flattering assiduities of
a prosperous CHEF D'INSTITUTION. I smiled inwardly; and strange to say,
though my AMOUR PROPRE was excited not disagreeabl