her demands on me in the way of work. Her
wardrobe, so far as concerned articles of external wear, was well and elegantly
supplied; but there were other habiliments not so carefully provided: what she
had, needed frequent repair. She hated needle-drudgery herself, and she would
bring her hose, etc., to me in heaps, to be mended. A compliance of some weeks
threatening to result in the establishment of an intolerable bore - I at last
distinctly told her she must make up her mind to mend her own garments. She
cried on receiving this information, and accused me of having ceased to be her
friend; but I held by my decision, and let the hysterics pass as they could.
    Notwithstanding these foibles, and various others needless to mention - but
by no means of a refined or elevating character - how pretty she was! How
charming she looked, when she came down on a sunny Sunday morning, well-dressed
and well-humoured, robed in pale lilac silk, and with her fair long curls
reposing on her white shoulders. Sunday was a holiday which she always passed
with friends resident in town; and amongst these friends she speedily gave me to
understand was one who would fain become something more. By glimpses and hints
it was shown me, and by the general buoyancy of her look and manner it was ere
long proved that ardent admiration - perhaps genuine love - was at her command.
She called her suitor Isidore: this, however, she intimated was not his real
name, but one by which it pleased her to baptize him - his own, she hinted, not
being very pretty. Once, when she had been bragging about the vehemence of
Isidore's attachment, I asked if she loved him in return.
    »Comme cela,« said she: »he is handsome, and he loves me to distraction, so
that I am well amused. Ça suffit.«
    Finding that she carried the thing on longer than, from her very fickle
tastes, I had anticipated, I one day took it upon me to make serious inquiries
as to whether the gentleman was such as her parents, and especially her uncle -
on whom, it appeared, she was dependent - would be likely to approve. She
allowed that this was very doubtful, as she did not believe Isidore had much
money.
    »Do you encourage him?« I asked.
    »Furieusement, sometimes,« said she.
    »Without being certain that you will be permitted to marry him?«
    »Oh how dowdyish you are! I don't want