-money is
not current in Brussels, I could not doubt who left the twenty francs
on the chimney-piece. I thought I heard you stir the vase when I was
stooping to look for your glove under the table, and I wondered you
should imagine it had got into such a little cup. Now, monsieur, the
money is not mine, and I shall not keep it; I will not send it in this
note because it might be lost--besides, it is heavy; but I will restore
it to you the first time I see you, and you must make no difficulties
about taking it; because, in the first place, I am sure, monsieur,
you can understand that one likes to pay one's debts; that it is
satisfactory to owe no man anything; and, in the second place, I can now
very well afford to be honest, as I am provided with a situation. This
last circumstance is, indeed, the reason of my writing to you, for it
is pleasant to communicate good news; and, in these days, I have only my
master to whom I can tell anything.

"A week ago, monsieur, I was sent for by a Mrs. Wharton, an English
lady; her eldest daughter was going to be married, and some rich
relation having made her a present of a veil and dress in costly old
lace, as precious, they said, almost as jewels, but a little damaged by
time, I was commissioned to put them in repair. I had to do it at the
house; they gave me, besides, some embroidery to complete, and nearly
a week elapsed before I had finished everything. While I worked, Miss
Wharton often came into the room and sat with me, and so did Mrs.
Wharton; they made me talk English; asked how I had learned to speak it
so well; then they inquired what I knew besides--what books I had read;
soon they seemed to make a sort of wonder of me, considering me no doubt
as a learned grisette. One afternoon, Mrs. Wharton brought in a Parisian
lady to test the accuracy of my knowledge of French; the result of
it: was that, owing probably in a great degree to the mother's and
daughter's good humour about the marriage, which inclined them to
do beneficent deeds, and partly, I think, because they are naturally
benevolent people, they decided that the wish I had expressed to do
something more than mend lace was a very legitimate one; and the same
day they took me in their carriage to Mrs. D.'s, who is the directress
of the first English school at Brussels. It seems she happened to be in
want of a French lady to give lessons in geography, history, grammar,
and composition, in the French language. Mrs. Wh