d already dangerous and earthly thoughts
in her heart.

"Mamma," she said, "why should I be virtuous, when you are not?"

Louise trembled, and looked terrified at her daughter. "Who told you I
was not virtuous?"

"My poor, dear papa told me when he was here the last time. Oh, he told
me a great deal, mamma! He told," continued the child, with a sly smile,
"how you loved a beautiful gardener, and ran off with him, and how he,
at the command of the king, married you and saved you from shame; and he
said you were not at all grateful, but had often betrayed and deceived
him, and, because he was so unhappy with you, he drank so much wine to
forget his sorrow. Oh, mamma, you don't know how poor papa cried as
he told me all this, and besought me not to become like you, but to be
good, that every one might love and respect me!"

Whilst Camilla spoke, her mother had sunk slowly, as if crushed, to the
floor; and, with her face buried in the child's bed, sobbed aloud.

"Don't cry, mamma," said Camilla, pleadingly; "believe me, I will not
do as papa says, and I will not be so stupid as to live in a small town,
where it is so still and lonesome."

As her mother still wept, Camilla continued, as if to quiet her:

"I shall be like you, mamma; indeed, I will. Oh, you should but see how
I watch you, and notice how you smile at all the gentlemen, what soft
eyes you make, and then again, how cold and proud you are, and then look
at them so tenderly! Oh, I have noticed all, and I shall do just the
same, and I will run away with a gardener, but I will not let papa catch
me--no, not I."

"Hush, child, hush!" cried the mother, rising, pale and trembling, from
her knees; "you must become a good and virtuous girl, and never run away
with a man. Forget what your bad father has told you; you know he hates
me, and has told you all these falsehoods to make you do the same."

"Mamma, can you swear that it is not true?"

"Yes, my child, I can swear it."

"You did not run off with a gardener?"

"No, my child. Have I not told you that a virtuous girl never runs
away?"

"You did not make papa unhappy, and, being his wife, love other men?"

"No, my daughter."

"Mamma," said the child, after a long pause, "can you give me your right
hand, and swear you did not?"

Louise hesitated a moment; a cold shiver ran through her, she felt as if
she was about to perjure herself; but as she looked into the beautiful
face of her child, whose eyes w