her father; he did not stay five minutes, but that time was long enough
to strike Monsieur with a horror evinced by a series of shrugs which soon
rendered the dislike reciprocal. I never saw such a contrast between two
men. The Frenchman was slim, and long, and pale; and allowing always for
the dancing-master air, which in my secret soul I thought never could be
allowed for, he might be called elegant. The Englishman was the beau ideal
of a John Bull, portentous in size, broad, and red of visage; loud of
tongue, and heavy in step; he shook the room as he strode, and made the
walls echo when he spoke. I rather liked the man, there was so much
character about him, and in spite of the coarseness, so much that was bold
and hearty. Monsieur shrugged to be sure, but he seemed likely to run
away, especially when the stranger's first words conveyed an injunction to
the lady of the house "to take care that no grinning Frenchman had the
ordering of his Betsy's feet. If she must learn to dance, let her be
taught by an honest Englishman." After which declaration, kissing the
little girl very tenderly, the astounding papa took his departure.

Poor Betsy! there she sat, the tears trickling down her cheeks, little
comforted by the kind notice of the governess and the English teacher, and
apparently insensible to the silent scorn of her new companions. For my
own part, I entertained toward her much of that pity which results from
recent experience of the same sort of distress--

"A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind."

I was a little girl myself, abundantly shy and awkward, and I had not
forgotten the heart-tug of leaving home, and the terrible loneliness of
the first day at school. Moreover, I suspected that in one respect, she
was much more an object of compassion than myself; I believed her to be
motherless; so when I thought nobody was looking or listening, I made some
girlish advances toward acquaintanceship, which she was still too shy or
too miserable to return, so that, easily repelled myself, as a bashful
child is, our intercourse came to nothing. With my elders and betters, the
_cancan_, who ruled the school, Betsy stood if possible lower than ever.
They had had the satisfaction to discover not only that he lived in the
Borough, but that her father (horror of horrors!) was an eminent
cheese-factor!--a seller of Stilton! That he was very rich, and had a
brother an alderman, rather made matters worse. Poor Betsy onl