ntiments, but he imparted them to his friends most
freely, as his wont was. He used to weep freely,--quite unrestrained by
the presence of the domestics, as English sentiment would be:--and when
Madame de Florac quitted the room after dinner, would squeeze my hand
and tell me with streaming eyes, that his mother was an angel. "Her life
has been but a long trial, my friend," he would say. "Shall not I, who
have caused her to shed so many tears, endeavour to dry some?" Of course
the friends who liked him best encouraged him in an intention so pious.

The reader has already been made acquainted with this lady by the
letters of hers, which came into my possession some time after the
events which I am at present narrating: my wife, through our kind
friend, Colonel Newcome, had also had the honour of an introduction to
Madame de Florac at Paris; and, on coming to Rosebury for the Christmas
holidays, I found Laura and the children greatly in favour with the
good Countess. She treated her son's wife with a perfect though distant
courtesy. She was thankful to Madame de Moncontour for the latter's
great goodness to her son. Familiar with but very few persons, she
could scarcely be intimate with her homely daughter-in-law. Madame de
Moncontour stood in the greatest awe of her; and, to do that good lady
justice, admired and reverenced Paul's mother with all her simple
heart. In truth, I think almost every one had a certain awe of Madame de
Florac, except children, who came to her trustingly, and, as it were, by
instinct. The habitual melancholy of her eyes vanished as they lighted
upon young faces and infantile smiles. A sweet love beamed out of her
countenance: an angelic smile shone over her face, as she bent towards
them and caressed them. Her demeanour then, nay, her looks and ways at
other times;--a certain gracious sadness, a sympathy with all grief, and
pity for all pain; a gentle heart, yearning towards all children; and,
for her own especially, feeling a love that was almost an anguish: in
the affairs of the common world only a dignified acquiescence, as if her
place was not in it, and her thoughts were in her Home elsewhere;--these
qualities, which we had seen exemplified in another life, Laura and her
husband watched in Madame de Florac, and we loved her because she was
like our mother. I see in such women, the good and pure, the patient and
faithful, the tried and meek, the followers of Him whose earthly life
was divinel