"said

"But I am delighted to wait upon madame now," the old man, "and since madame has the bounty to wish to see my family-by here, madame, I beg-enter, and be welcome-very welcome."

Saying this he opened the great window-door in the end of the shop, and Miss Susan, walking forward somewhat agitated, found herself all at once in a scene very unexpected by her, and of a kind for which she was unprepared. She was ushered in at once to the family room and family life, without even the interposition of a passage. The room into which this glass-door opened was not very large, and quite disproportionately lofty. Opposite to the entrance from the shop was another large window, reaching almost to the roof, which opened upon a narrow court, and kept a curious dim daylight, half from without, half from within, in the space, which seemed more narrow than it need have done by reason of the height of the roof. Against this window, in a large easy-chair, sat an old woman in a black gown, without a cap, and with one little tail of grey hair twisted at the back of her head, and curl-papers embellishing her forehead in front. Her gown was rusty, and not without stains, and she wore a large handkerchief, with spots, tied about her neck. She was chopping vegetables in a dish, and not in the least abashed to be found so engaged. In a corner sat a younger woman, also in black, and looking like a gloomy shadow, lingering apart from the light. Another young woman went and came towards an inner room, in which it was evident the dinner was going to be cooked. A pile of boxes, red and blue, and all the colours of the rainbow, was on a table. There was no carpet on the floor, which evidently had not been frotté for some time past, nor curtains at the window, except a melancholy spotted muslin, which hung closely over it, making the scanty daylight dimmer still. Miss Susan drew her breath hard with a kind of gasp. The Austins were people extremely well to do-rich in their way, and thinking themselves very comfortable; but to the prejudiced English eye of

their new relation, the scene was one of absolute squalor. Even in an English cottage, Miss Susan thought, there would have been an attempt at some prettiness or other, some air of nicety or ornament; but the comfortable people here (though Miss Susan supposed all foreigners to be naturally addicted to show and glitter) thought of nothing but the necessities of living. They were not in the least ashamed, as an English family would have been, of being "caught " in the midst of their morning's occupations. The old lady put aside the basin with the vegetables, and wiped her hands with a napkin, and greeted her visitor with perfect calm; the others took scarcely any notice. Were these the people whose right it was to succeed generations of English squires-the dignified race of Whiteladies? Miss Susan shivered as she sat down, and then she began her work of temptation. She drew forth her picture, which was handed round for everybody to see. She described the estate and all its attractions. Would they let this pass away from them? At least they should not do it without knowing what they had sacrificed. To do this, partly in English, which the shopkeeper translated imperfectly, and partly in very bad French, was no small labour to Miss Susan; but her zeal was equal to the tax upon it, and the more she talked, and the more trouble she had to overcome her own repugnance to these new people, the more vehement she became in her efforts to break their alliance with Farrel, and induce them to recover their rights. The young woman who was moving about the room, and whose appearance had at once struck Miss Susan, came and looked over the old mother's shoulder at the picture, and expressed her admiration in the liveliest terms. The jolie maison it was, and the dommage to lose it, she cried: and these words were very strong pleas in favour of all Miss Susan said.

Ah, what an abominable law," said the old lady at length, "that excludes the daughters!-sans ça, ma fille!" and she began to cry a little. "Oh, my son, my son! if the good God had not taken him, what joy to

have restored him to the country of his grandfather, to an establishment so charming!"

Miss Susan drew close to the old woman in the rusty black gown, and approached her mouth to her ear.

"Cette jeune femme-là est veuve de votre fils?"

"No. There she is there in the corner; She who neither smiles nor speaks," said the mother, putting up the napkin with which she had dried her hands, to her eyes.

The whole situation had in it a dreary tragi-comedy, half pitiful, half laughable; a great deal of intense feeling veiled by external circumstances of the homeliest order, such as is often to be found in comfortable, unlovely bourgeois households. How it was, in such a matter-of-fact interior that the great temptation of her life should have flashed across Miss Susan's mind, I cannot tell. She glanced from the young wife, very soon to be a mother, who leant over the old lady's chair, to the dark shadow in the corner, who had never stirred from her seat. It was all done in a moment-thought, plan, execution. A sudden excitement took hold upon her. She drew her chair close to the old woman, and bent forward till her lips almost touched her ear. "L'autre est la même-que elle?"

66 Que voulez-vous dire, madame ?"

The old lady looked up at her bewildered, but, caught by the glitter of excitement in Miss Susan's eye, and the panting breath, which bore evidence to some sudden fever in her, stopped short. Her wondering look turned into something more keen and impassioned-a kind of electric spark flashed between the two women. It was done in a moment; so rapidly, that at least (as Miss Susan thought after, a hundred times, and a hundred to that) it was without premeditation; so sudden, that it was scarcely their fault. Miss Susan's eyes gleaming, said something to those of the old Flamande, whom she had never seen before, Guillaume Austin's wife. A curious thrill ran through both-the sting, the attraction, the sharp movement, half pain, half pleasure, of