of all that was mean and contemptible, and she was only
indignant at their being able to come there at all. The Bankheads were
bad enough; but to have the Hamiltons there too, and then to hear them
all talking French with some foreigners who occasionally joined them,
really humbled her.

This, then, she conceived was the secret of success. "They _know_
French," she would reply in a voice of infinite mortification, when
her husband expressed his indignant astonishment at finding these
"nobodies" on 'change, "somebodies" at the Opera. To "_know_ French,"
comprehended all her ideas of education, information, sense, and
literature. This, then, she thought was the "Open Sesame" of "good
society," the secret of enjoyment at the Opera; for, be it understood,
all foreign languages were "French" to Mrs. Fairchild.

She was beginning to find the Opera a terrible bore, spite of all the
finery she sported and saw around her, with people she did not know,
and music she did not understand. As for Mr. Fairchild, the fatigue
was intolerable; and he would have rebelled at once, if he had not
paid for his places for the season, and so chose to have his money's
worth, if it was only in tedium.

A bright idea, a bold resolution occurred to Mrs. Fairchild. She would
learn French.

So she engaged a teacher at once, at enormous terms, who was to place
her on a level with the best of them.

Poor little woman! and poor teacher, too! what work it was! How he
groaned in spirit at the thick tongue that _could not_ pronounce the
delicate vowels, and the dull apprehension that knew nothing of moods
and tenses.

And she, poor little soul, who was as innocent of English Grammar as
of murder, how was she to be expected to understand the definite and
indefinite when it was all indefinite; and as for the participle past,
she did not believe _any_ body understood it. And so she worked and
puzzled, and sometimes almost cried, for a week, and then went to the
Opera and found she was no better off than before.

In despair, and angry with her teacher, she dismissed him. "She did
not believe any body ever learnt it that way out of books;" and "so
she would get a French maid, and she'd learn more hearing her talk in
a month, than Mr. A. could teach her, if she took lessons forever."
And so she got a maid, who brought high recommendations from some
grand people who had brought her from France, and then she thought
herself quite set up.

But the exper