ose
accent she praised for its purity; purity of accent was characteristic
of all this lady's pupils; but what was really extraordinary in
Mademoiselle Claxon was her sense of grammatical structure; she wrote
the language even more perfectly than she spoke it; but beautifully, but
wonderfully; her exercises were something marvellous.

Mrs. Lander would have liked Clementina to take all the lessons that
she heard any of the other young ladies in the hotel were taking. One of
them went in town every day, and studied drawing at an art-school, and
she wanted Clementina to do that, too. But Clementina would not do that;
she had tried often enough at home, when her brother Jim was drawing,
and her father was designing the patterns of his woodwork; she knew that
she never could do it, and the time would be wasted. She decided against
piano lessons and singing lessons, too; she did not care for either, and
she pleaded that it would be a waste to study them; but she suggested
dancing lessons, and her gift for dancing won greater praise, and
perhaps sincerer, than her accent won from Mademoiselle Blanc, though
Mrs. Lander said that she would not have believed any one could be
more complimentary. She learned the new steps and figures in all the
fashionable dances; she mastered some fancy dances, which society was
then beginning to borrow from the stage; and she gave these before Mrs.
Lander with a success which she felt herself.

"I believe I could teach dancing," she said.

"Well, you won't eve' haf to, child," returned Mrs. Lander, with an eye
on the side of the case that seldom escaped her.

In spite of his wish to respect these preoccupations, Fane could
not keep from offering Clementina attentions, which took the form of
persecution when they changed from flowers for Mrs. Lander's table to
letters for herself. He apologized for his letters whenever he met her;
but at last one of them came to her before breakfast with a special
delivery stamp from Boston. He had withdrawn to the city to write it,
and he said that if she could not make him a favorable answer, he should
not come back to Woodlake.

She had to show this letter to Mrs. Lander, who asked: "You want he
should come back?"

"No, indeed! I don't want eva to see him again."

"Well, then, I guess you'll know how to tell him so."

The girl went into her own room to write, and when she brought her
answer to show it to Mrs. Lander she found her in frowning thought.