“The height of that wretched grille hath deprived me of the sight of many charms.”
“Why didst not go to the other parlour? ‘Tis much lower there.”
“Let us go there.”
“Not to-day. I could give no reason for the change.”
“I will return to-morrow, and in the evening I start for Lyons.”
The little boarder came back, and I stood up facing her. I had a number of beautiful seals and trinkets hanging from my watch-chain, and I had not had time to put myself in a state of perfect decency again. This she noticed, and my seals serving as a pretext for her curiosity, she asked if she might look at them.
“As long as you like, my jewel; look at them and touch them as well.”
M—M—, foreseeing what would happen, left the room, saying that she would return anon. I hastened to deprive the curious-minded young boarder of all interest in my seals by placing in her hands a curiosity of another kind. She did not conceal her transports nor the pleasure she felt in satisfying her inquisitiveness about an object which was quite new to her, and which she was able to examine minutely for the first time in her life. But soon an effusion of the natural moisture changed her curiosity into surprise, and I did not interrupt her in her delighted contemplation of it.
Perceiving M—M—returning slowly, I lowered my shirt and sat down. My watch and chains were still on the ledge of the grating, and M—M—asked her young friend if the trinkets had pleased her.
“Yea,” replied the little one, in a dreamy and melancholy voice. She had travelled so far in less than two hours that she had plenty to think on.