ffered a magnificent sum to change also, and write against his
conscience. He lost his post; we became poorer every day. `Unless you
write, Adolphe,' I said to him, `we starve.' He has a noble heart, my
brother, full of honesty and truth. `I will rather starve,' he replied,
`than write lies.' So after a time we resolved to try our fortune here
in this cold, grey England. And we came. Adolphe was to become a
Professor of French, but it was long before he found work, and we
suffered. Mon Dieu! how we suffered during that first month!"

She paused a moment when she reached this point, and nodded her head
several times without speaking, as though words failed her. Susan, who
had listened to it all with the most earnest attention, feared she would
not go on, and she wanted very much to know what happened next.

"Was it because you had no money?" she asked softly at length.

"My child," said Delphine, her bright eyes moist with tears, which she
winked quickly away, "it is a terrible thing to be hungry one's self,
but it is far worse to see anyone you love hungry and heart-broken, and
yet patient. That is a thing one does not forget. But at last, when we
almost despaired, the Bon Dieu sent us a friend. It is a little history
which may, perhaps, amuse you; it was like this:--

"One night Adolphe was returning to me to say, as usual, that he could
find no place; no one wanted a French master. He had scarcely eaten
that day, and for weeks we had neither of us tasted meat, for we lived
on what I could make by sewing, and it was very little. Adolphe
therefore felt low in spirits and body, for he had walked about all the
day, and his heart was heavy. As he passed a butcher's shop near here,
the wife, who stood in the doorway, greeted him. He had once bought of
her some scraps of meat, such as you English give to your cats and dogs,
but which, in hands that understand the French cuisine, can be made to
form a ragout of great delicacy.

"`Good evening,' said she; `and how did the cat like his dinner?'

"My brother removed his hat and bowed, (you may have observed his noble
air at such moments), then, drawing himself to his full height:--

"`Madame,' he replied, `_I_ am the cat!'

"This answer, joined to the graceful manner of Adolphe, struck the good
Madame Jones deeply. They at once enter into conversation, and my
brother relates to her his vain attempts to find employment. She
listens with pity; she gives en