the homes of the poor chiffonières, whom one sees grubbing among the sweepings of the house each morning, and bought from them anything of gold or gilding which they might have picked up; and from sales he carried home all manner of old gold trinkets or toys, lamp chains or mirror frames. From all of this cheap and apparently worthless débris he and Clémence so contrived to extract every particle of gold, that after a time they had gathered quite a handsome fortune by selling their gold to one or two great orfèvriers, who knew where they obtained it, although their secret process for so doing was a mystery.1

And so it happened that on the day when we were gone to enjoy ourselves at Fontainebleau, M. Brunel and Clémence had set out to pass three or four weeks in Normandie, looking out for old ceilings; and as Henri had to remain and attend to his occupation of noting the arrivals and sales of hogsheads of wine at the Halle au Vin, it would be more agreeable to him to have his meals and pass his spare hours with us than alone with the canaries in their salle à manger. Clémence always left her birds in our care when she was from home, but except to feed them, and to open or shut the volets, we used not to go into her prettily-furnished rooms. Julie took care of Henri's

1 Facts.

sleeping-apartment.

Clémence was very particular about their furniture. It was all of the handsomest description, all made by her own directions, under her own eye. She had purchased all the materials unmade-woods, velvets, chintz, marble, cotton and hair for stuffing; and had in upholsterers, a man and his wife, every day for six months to make all her chairs, tables, sofas, beds, cabinets-everything in their line. And these were Monsieur and Madame de la Motte Dauphine, and thus our friendship with that family commenced.

CHAPTER V.

OUR FIRST SORROW.

THE day after we had been to Fontainebleau was the Fête of Corpus Christi, and as my mother and grand'mère were very strict about our observing the ceremonies of our religion, we had to be up at an early hour to attend matins in a small church near us. We always went to this small church for catechism, the ordinary services, and confession. On greater occasions we went to St. Clotilde; and on Sunday afternoons we either went to hear the fine singing-like a choir of angels chanting the vesper psalmody-in St. Sulpice; or to listen to a sermon in Nôtre Dame, where the eloquence of Père Hyacinthe or of Monseigneur the Archbishop edified us much.

The Corpus Christi is, as every one knows, a great ceremony, and we had often taken part in it; but

some way we were not very religious just then in Paris; and besides, we had had two idle days this week already-Monday, when we never worked, and Tuesday, when we were in the country; so that on this day we only went to matins, as I have said, in the small church.

We had our trade-Cerise and I-as well as Clémence and the young La Mottes. We sewed gloves for a great marchande des modes, Madame Crespigné, who lived on the north side of the river, near the church of the Madeleine; and we earned enough to keep us in caps, ribbons, and foulards, and to buy a warm shawl or dress once a year for mamma and the grand'mère. Our friends the La Mottes had a prettier and more interesting trade than ours, for they made beautiful velvet or muslin flowers-roses, lilies, pinks, flowers of every name and colour, for which they usually had orders from private families, some of whom were persons of the Court and of the great nobility; but, alas! too frequently these very personages paid them so little that we often said to each other, 'How is it that Madame la Marquise, or Mademoiselle de is not ashamed to offer so little for things so beautiful and so troublesome to make?' But these exclamations of poor girls like us did little good; and I often wished I could get near enough to the good Empress to implore of her to speak to her

,

ladies in general on the subject. We now heard great things of Madame Olivier and her goodness of heart; and we hoped she might do something to help hard-working and under-paid-or not paid at all— young ladies, like some of us.

After matins and déjeuné, Cerise and I fed Clémence's canaries, arranged our room-stopping a little time to compare the painting of Emile's flowergirl with that of Winterhalter's Eugénie; alas! it was inferior in many respects; but what then? Rome was not built in a day. When this was all ended, we sat down and worked so hard that we had quite finished. our parcel of gloves, ready to take them home next. morning, by five o'clock, when we had our second principal meal. Mamma had said that if we pleased we might take the flowers we had gathered for Jacqueline to her in the evening. I had kept them in water in a shady place, and they looked wonderfully fresh. Cerise brought some strawberries in her basket for Marie la Motte, lest she should feel jealous. We did not know her so well as Jacqueline; for she was a silent, reserved, proud girl, who seldom noticed us much. She never forgot her high descent, and seemed to be full of some purpose for regaining a great position some day. She was not a Republican, like Clémence Brunel, but was rather, I believe, Legitimist, as were the ancient la Motte-Dauphines.