The Idol of Paris

e tea this tender parent brought to her, and th

and be registered for the examinations tha

to go to

stay with papa, mustn

ere silent a moment, occupied

e him to go out with us,

y best thing for both

e went to make

een, and I am quite tall for my age. Oh! yes, I shall be tall." She came very close to the mirror and examined herself closely, hypnotizing herself little by little. She beheld herself under a million different aspects. Her whole life seemed passing before

, studying "Dona Sol" in Hernani. She had not heard the opening of

time," she said, closing the book.

ger to her lips. "Your father is

tween love and reason in his soul, and her upright little soul suffered with his. Bending gently beside him she murmured, "Do not be unhappy, papa. You know that

his head and looked de

ou, my litt

he appointed hour. M. Darbois was already in his study with one of his pu

my birth c

s,

's writte

sighed Mad

ed to give

sacred, but it cost him a great deal. My

t if papa had refused his permission, it would have made me unhappy and that I should have fallen ill and pined away. You remember how, about a year ago, I almost died of anaemia and consumption. Really, mother dear, my illness was simply caused by

hen two tears rolled quietly from beneath

to give in. I can not, and your grief will kill me. I suffered so yesterday, out driving, feeling papa so far away. I kept feeling as if he were holding himself aloof in an effort to forget, and now you are c

perament. In a tone of more authority than Esperance had ever heard her use, "Come, ch

, charged with receiving applications, was ensconced. He was a man of fifty, gruff, jaundiced from liver trouble, looking down superciliously at the girls whose names he had just received. When Madame Darbois entered with Esperance, the distinguished manner of the two ladies caused a little

woman with her hands stuffed into white cot

e had shown those who had preceded her, he advanced towards Madame Darbois and, raising his bl

f her little head. "Yes," said Madame Darbois, "but I

rs with an air of assurance.

und of disconte

in fury. "If I hear any more n

ght and left, Parisian blossoms, pale and anaemic. Both wished to pass the entrance examinations, the one as an ingenue in comedy, the other in tragedy. They were neither comic nor tragic, but modest and charming. There was also a small shop-keeper, covered with jewels. She sat very rigid, far forward on the bench, compressed into a terrible corset which forced her breast and back into the humps of a punchinello; her legs hanging just

en the official had read Esperance's birth certificate, he exclaimed, "W

oked at each oth

n that M. Darbois has allowed...?" His sentence died in his throat. Madame Darbois had become very pale and her daughter's nostrils quivered. The official finishe

toward the door. The group of young men bowed to the

creamed the bi

and looked directly at the woman,

youths, "she settled you f

ning for her. For the first time she was aware of her own individuality; for the first time she recognized in herself

Esperance jumped from the carriage before it stopped. "

ckly. "Come, come, we haven't time to talk of that. We must sit down at

lled forward her father's chair, and sat down between the two beings whom she adored, but whom she