her heart yearns towards
thee, that I have felt myself entrained toward thee since I saw
thee"--Clive momentarily expected to be kissed again. "Tell thy father
that I feel--am touched by his goodness with an eternal gratitude, and
love every one that loves my mother." As far as wishes went, these
two were eager promoters of Clive's little love-affair; and Madame
la Princesse became equally not less willing. Clive's good looks and
good-nature had had their effects upon that good-natured woman, and
he was as great a favourite with her as with her husband. And thus
it happened that when Miss Ethel came to pay her visit, and sate with
Madame de Florac and her grandchildren in the garden, Mr. Newcome would
sometimes walk up the avenue there, and salute the ladies.

If Ethel had not wanted to see him, would she have come? Yes; she used
to say she was going to Madame de Preville's, not Madame de Florac's,
and would insist, I have no doubt, that it was Madame de Preville whom
she went to see (whose husband was a member of the Chamber of Deputies,
a Conseiller d'etat; or other French bigwig), and that she had no idea
of going to meet Clive, or that he was more than a casual acquaintance
at the Hotel de Florac. There was no part of her conduct in all her
life, which this lady, when it was impugned, would defend more strongly
than this intimacy at the Hotel de Florac. It is not with this I
quarrel especially. My fair young readers, who have seen a half-dozen
of seasons, can you call to mind the time when you had such a friendship
for Emma Tomkins, that you were always at the Tomkins's, and notes were
constantly passing between your house and hers? When her brother, Paget
Tomkins, returned to India, did not your intimacy with Emma fall off? If
your younger sister is not in the room, I know you will own as much
to me. I think you are always deceiving yourselves and other people. I
think the motive you put forward is very often not the real one; though
you will confess, neither to yourself, nor to any human being, what
the real motive is. I think that what you desire you pursue, and are as
selfish in your way as your bearded fellow-creatures are. And as for the
truth being in you, of all the women in a great acquaintance, I protest
there are but--never mind. A perfectly honest woman, a woman who never
flatters, who never manages, who never cajoles, who never conceals,
who never uses her eyes, who never speculates on the effect which s