 Emanuel. In the latter case it was an honour spontaneously
awarded, not plotted and contrived beforehand, and offered an additional proof,
amongst many others, of the estimation in which - despite his partialities,
prejudices, and irritabilities - the professor of literature was held by his
pupils. No article of value was offered to him: he distinctly gave it to be
understood, that he would accept neither plate nor jewellery. Yet he liked a
slight tribute; the cost, the money-value, did not touch him: a diamond ring, a
gold snuff-box, presented with pomp, would have pleased him less than a flower,
or a drawing, offered simply and with sincere feelings. Such was his nature. He
was a man, not wise in his generation, yet could he claim a filial sympathy with
»the dayspring on high.«
    M. Paul's fête fell on the first of March and a Thursday. It proved a fine
sunny day, and being likewise the morning on which it was customary to attend
mass; being also otherwise distinguished by the half holiday which permitted the
privilege of walking out, shopping, or paying visits in the afternoon: these
combined considerations induced a general smartness and freshness of dress.
Clean collars were in vogue; the ordinary dingy woollen classe-dress was
exchanged for something lighter and clearer. Mademoiselle Zélie St Pierre, on
this particular Thursday, even assumed a »robe de soie,« deemed in economical
Labassecour an article of hazardous splendour and luxury; nay, it was remarked
that she sent for a coiffeur to dress her hair that morning; there were pupils
acute enough to discover that she had bedewed her handkerchief and her hands
with a new and fashionable perfume. Poor Zélie! It was much her wont to declare
about this time, that she was tired to death of a life of seclusion and labour;
that she longed to have the means and leisure for relaxation; to have some one
to work for her - a husband who would pay her debts (she was wo-fully encumbered
with debt), supply her wardrobe, and leave her at liberty, as she said, to
»goûter un peu les plaisirs.« It had long been rumoured, that her eye was upon
M. Emanuel. Monsieur Emanuel's eye was certainly often upon her. He would sit
and watch her perseveringly for minutes together. I have seen him give her a
quarter of an hour's gaze, while the class was silently composing, and he sat
throned on his estrade, unoccupied. Conscious always of this basilisk attention,
she would
