lles kept
her own family in the background, though she never neglected them. She
was always doing them little services, but she knew well that there were
certain things about them that could not but be disagreeable to her
husband. M. de Nailles knew all this, too, and respected his wife's
affection for her family. He seldom asked her where she had been during
the day. If he had she would have answered, with a sigh: "I went to see
my mother while Jacqueline was taking her dancing-lesson, and before she
went to her singing-master."

That she was passionately attached to Jacqueline was proved by the
affection the little girl conceived for her. "We two are friends," both
mother and daughter often said of each other. Even Modeste, old Modeste,
who had been at first indignant at seeing a stranger take the place of
her dead mistress, could not but acknowledge that the usurper was no
ordinary step mother. It might have been truly said that Madame de
Nailles had never scolded Jacqueline, and that Jacqueline had never done
anything contrary to the wishes of Madame de Nailles. When anything went
wrong it was Fraulein Schult who was reproached first; if there was any
difficulty in the management of Jacqueline, she alone received
complaints. In the eyes of the "two friends," Fraulein Schult was somehow
to be blamed for everything that went wrong in the family, but between
themselves an observer might have watched in vain for the smallest cloud.
Madame de Nailles, when she was first married, could not make enough of
the very ugly yet attractive little girl, whose tight black curls and
gypsy face made an admirable contrast to her own more delicate style of
beauty, which was that of a blonde. She caressed Jacqueline, she dressed
her up, she took her about with her like a little dog, and overwhelmed
her with demonstrations of affection, which served not only to show off
her own graceful attitudes, but gave spectators a high opinion of her
kindness of heart.

When from time to time some one, envious of her happiness, pitied her for
being childless, Madame de Nailles would say: "What do you mean? I have
one daughter; she is enough for me."

It is a pity children grow so fast, and that little girls who were once
ugly sometimes develop into beautiful young women. The time came when the
model stepmother began to wish that Jacqueline would only develop
morally, intellectually, and not physically. But she showed nothing of
this in her behav