, but Amedee blushed without knowing why. Oh!
no, certainly those three young ladies in their Savoy-cake skirts and
nougat waists were not as pretty as little Maria in her simple brown
frock. How she improved from day to day! It seemed to Amedee as if he
never had seen her before until this minute. Where had she found that
supple, round waist, that mass of reddish hair which she twisted upon the
top of her head, that lovely complexion, that mouth, and those eyes that
smiled with the artless tenderness of young flowers?

Mamma Gerard, while laughing like the others, scolded her daughter a
little for her attack of feminine vanity, and then began to talk of
Madame Roger in order to change the conversation.

Amedee did not cease to praise his friend. He told how affectionate he
was to his mother, how he resisted the military blood that burned in him,
how graceful he was, and how, at eighteen years, he did the honor of the
drawing-room and table with all the manner of a grand seigneur.

Maria listened attentively.

"You have promised to bring him here, Amedee," said the spoiled child,
with a serious air. "I should like very much to see him once."

Amedee repeated his promise; but on his way to the Lycee, for his
afternoon class, he recalled the incident of the pretty maid and the name
of Zoe Mirilton, and, seized with some scruples, he asked himself whether
he ought to introduce his friend to the young Gerard girls. At first this
idea made him uneasy, then he thought that it was ridiculous. Was not
Maurice a good-hearted young man and well brought up? Had he not seen him
conduct himself with tact and reserve before Colonel Lantz's daughters?

Some days later Maurice reminded him of the promised visit to the
Gerards, and Amedee presented him to his old friends.

Louise was not at home; she had been going about teaching for some time
to increase the family's resources, for the engraver was more red-faced
than ever, and obliged to change the number of his spectacles every year,
and could not do as much work as formerly.

But the agreeable young man made a conquest of the rest of the family by
his exquisite good-nature and cordial, easy manner. Respectful and simple
with Madame Gerard, whom he intimidated a little, he paid very little
attention to Maria and did not appear to notice that he was exciting her
curiosity to the highest pitch. He modestly asked Father Gerard's advice
upon his project of painting, amusing himsel