Cicely

by Mrs. Molesworth

[VII. ALONE]

[VIII. MADAME GENTILLE]

[IX, A SOUTHERN WINTER]

[X. AMIEL TO THE FORE]

[XI. FRIEND AND WIFE]

[CHAPTER I.]

WIDOW LAFON’S SOUP.

“Why a stranger—when he sees her
In the street even—smileth.”

E. B. Browning

ONLY early April, but already a very hot day—what we dwellers in the north would consider an almost unendurably hot day! But in the pleasantest part of the sunny south of France, heat, up to a certain point, is endurable enough, thanks to the perfect purity of the air, ever freshened by the near neighbourhood of mountains and sea.