"And did she accept your proposal?"
"Gladly, madame la comtesse. My determination to be independent seemed to touch her deeply."
"I can readily understand that."
"Thanks to her, I soon had a large number of pupils, several of them much older than myself,—my pride is continually cropping out, you see, madame. In this way, what was at first child's play became a vocation, and, later on, a valuable resource. At the age of fourteen, I was the second piano teacher, with a salary of twelve hundred francs, so you can form some estimate of the wealth I must have amassed at the age of sixteen and a half."
"Poor child! So young, and yet so full of indomitable energy and noble pride!" exclaimed the countess, unable to restrain her tears.
"Then why did you leave the school?" she continued, after she had conquered her emotion.
"Our noble-hearted principal died, and another lady—who unfortunately did not resemble my benefactress in the least—took her place. The newcomer, however, proposed that I should remain in the institution upon the same terms. I accepted her offer, but, at the end of two months, my great fault—and my hot head—caused me to sever my connection with the school."
"And why?"
"My new employer was as hard and tyrannical as the other had been kind and affectionate, and one day—"
Herminie's beautiful face turned a vivid scarlet at the recollection, and she hesitated a moment.