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'Ugly as I am,' said she, 'I know who my father is '-alluding to some malevolent reports that mouths can always be found to circulate. I am of a well-to-do family; and it will be a long time before a respectable butcher asks your hand in marriage.'

Mina expressed the greatest contempt for respectable butchers; and went away to repent of her own folly and rashness. The mischief was done, however. Caroline at once set to work to turn her mother and sister against the orphan; and in a very few days she found that she was looked upon with aversion and suspicion by the whole female portion of the family. Charron himself was not tampered with, because every one felt that his good sense would soon set matters all to rights. Some people dearly love a squabble, and would not have it interfered with for the world. The poor tailor, therefore, who was scientifically composing a pair of pantaloons for the sub-prefect, knew nothing of what was going on; and yet even he, as he squatted on his board, felt that there was a spirit of discord in his house, and looked up now and then inquisitively through his spectacles, as if expecting an explanation that did not come.

The respectable butcher who had opened negotiations for the hand of Caroline, through some channel unknown to us, arrived at length from a distant part of the country. On approaching the house, he made a grimace at its humble appearance, as if he had expected something on a grander scale. Perhaps his stout heart had experienced some flutterings of bashfulness until then; but he at once felt himself to be a man of importance, who was about to confer, not receive, an honour, and strode into the house as boldly as into his own slaughter-yard. Unfortunate butcher! We have read of a man who, having entered his bed-chamber, and carefully locked the door, saw an alligator projecting from under his couch. Formerly, we could not figure to ourselves an appropriate attitude of astonishment, but now we can. Bold Butcher Bresson, just on the point of uttering a boisterous shout, beheld a young girl sitting alone in the workshop, and his heartwhy will hearts be so deceitful?-told him this must be Caroline!

The whole family had gone out to meet the expected bridegroom, and had missed him on the way. Poor Caroline had maliciously suggested that Mina should be left behind—perhaps she feared comparisons-and somehow or other the matter was arranged by Madame Charron. But man or woman may propose: it is of no use; the disposition of events comes from elsewhere; and Hannibal Bresson misdirected his gratitude, when, on developing himself from the heap into which he had been struck, as they popularly phrase it, he mentally thanked his parents-inlaw elect for the delicate and dexterous manner in which they had contrived that this first interview should be a tête-à-tête.

Spenser tells us of the influence of Una over the lion; it was surpassed by that of Mina over this unhappy butcher. The great red-cheeked brawler, who had come that way, as a kind of episode

during a visit to the Poissy cattle-market, in search of a steady partner to take money for the steaks and cutlets which he would cut up, was reduced to a state of humble terror at once, as well he might. What chance had a rough customer as he was, the hero of the cabarets, the scientific smoker, the brawny wrestler, the Lovelace of an obscure country town, accustomed to roar out compliments more energetic than delicate, interlarded with oaths; the man whose talk was of oxen, and whose system of morals was formed in the society of terrier dogs and poachers-what chance had he of favour from that fairy-like creature, that looked up from her work in surprise at his precipitate appearance? He felt the thing to be impossible at once.

Mina was now nearly seventeen years of age, and had of late suddenly sprung up almost into a woman. Though hard work, and, still more, painful thought, in her own opinion, somewhat dimmed the brilliance of her childish beauty, she was a being most lovely to behold. Every feature, from her long-lashed eyes to her finely chiselled vermilion mouth, was faultless in its harmony; her glossy hair, almost black, arranged with Greek simplicity, stood off boldly from her ivory neck; her form, as yet incompletely developed, reminded one of Psyche in a Barège peignoir. Hannibal Bresson had found his Capua in that tailor's shop.

What a wonderful sight it was to behold him tame down from the bully into nincompoopishness! He whisked off his travellingcap, and muttered a few indistinct words of inquiry as to whether this was the very identical shop of M. Charron; and being politely told that there was no mistake, said something unintelligible as to the heat of the weather. Mina never confessed that she guessed who the stranger was, and we shall not dive too deep into the mystery. But she had been persecuted by Caroline for several days, and, if she did entertain a desire of vengeance, could not have taken a better method than that she followed.

M. Charron would be back directly, she said; he had gone to meet a person for whom the family entertained a great respect. (This was uttered with something like a blush). Would monsieur sit down and wait a moment? The invitation was accepted of course; and poor Hannibal, beginning to recover from his_surprise, thought it a capital joke to carry on the mystery. For a whole hour, he remained sitting at a respectful distance on the edge of a chair in a perfect trance of delight. No doubt his sentiments were as powerful, and perhaps as pure, as ever agitated the breast of man. At anyrate, he always declared that he had known but that moment of real happiness; and when, in afteryears, he concealed the bitterness of his regrets under a theoretical hatred of marriage, and he had become stupid with brandy and want of thought, he used now and then to sigh portentously and mutter: 'How different I might have been if'

But no sneer or taunt of his boon-companions could induce him to allude

No. 6.

9

to a scene or pronounce a name that must have floated through his memory and trembled on his lips.

III.

Mina did not behave quite perfectly in this affair; she yielded to a little female vanity and vindictiveness. The mischief was done when the family returned. Unhappy Bresson uttered an exclamation of horror on beholding the real Caroline; and with somewhat coarse frankness, swore he would not marry her to be made king of France. We should have liked him better had he suppressed this speech. The poor girl, who considered herself as good as married, fainted away, or rather pretended to do so; for she pushed Mina, who ran to her assistance, convulsively back from her. In the midst of the confusion, Charron led the son of his old friend, as he called him, into another room, and after reproving him severely for his brutality, asked the reason of this change. Bresson confessed at once that he was over-head-and-ears in love with the youngest daughter, Mina.

'She is not my daughter,' said Charron, ' and has not a penny for dowry.'

'So much the better,' replied the butcher, beginning to conceive hopes.

After what you have said and done,' quoth Charron, of course you cannot carry on your courtship in this house; and I ought to quarrel with you; but my regard for poor Mina's interests overcomes my parental pride. I will make your proposals to her; and though I tell you frankly that I do not think she will listen to them for a moment, I should wish her to do so. She is troubled with too much fancy and spirit; but household cares would soon tame her down.'

'Tame her down!' cried Hannibal, not understanding in his enthusiasm this matter-of-fact view of the case; and forthwith he fell to musing philosophically on the process by which lovely creatures like Mina are tamed down naturally and necessarily in this prosy world—which we all of us help to make prosy, and then grumble at.

We

Leaving him to his meditations, let us see what the women folks are doing. Nothing pleasant, we may be sure. Hysterics have been laid aside as soon as the men are away, and something like Billingsgate dialogue is introduced in lieu thereof. must not sympathise too much with Mina. She had brought all this upon herself in some measure; and now, instead of humbling herself before those who had received and protected her, and whose plans she had, without much intention, disturbed, she allowed herself to be goaded into defiance, and looking round, asked scornfully: Was it her fault that she was beautiful?'

'No,' said Charron, who came in after dismissing the butcher— 'not your fault that you are beautiful, but surely your fault that you set this transient quality above all more durable and more important ones, and that you forget your duty to others in silly admiration of yourself. My wife and children, forgive this poor girl, for she has disappointed us unwittingly; and after all, Caroline,' he added coaxingly, 'perhaps a grocer is more respectable than a butcher; and you know that young Charles Cognac has spoken to me.'

Thus was the storm soothed for a moment, although Caroline secretly determined, that it should not be her fault if there was a rival in the house to eclipse her when the next suitor came. It had been decreed that all her plans and machinations were to be thrown away.

In the evening, Charron contrived to give a rendezvous to Mina in the fields; and there, with no chance of being disturbed by the family, he laid the proposals of Bresson before his adopted daughter. Whilst so doing, he very frankly admitted that he desired to marry her as soon as possible, as she seemed likely to be a cause of discord in his house. Besides,' he added, "it is your interest that you should have some motive for framing your mind to the position in life which you have to expect. A little while longer, and you will be unable to repress that longing for grandeur which seems to possess you; and as there are no means of satisfying it, this will condemn you to misery, or worse than misery-vice. You do not seem to notice what I say, Mina. Is the mischief already done?'

'My dear sir,' replied Mina firmly, 'I thank you for the interest you take in my future, as for the protection you have afforded me in the past; but I do not see the necessity of marrying the first coarse rustic who presents himself, to save me from misery or vice. I have been brought up to expect better things; and rest assured that, if nothing else, the hopes I have of what is to come will sustain me in the path of virtue, as my energy will always be sufficient to keep me from poverty.'

'But, child, if my wife should insist on your leaving us at once, what would become of you?'

'I would go to Paris.'

"To Paris!' cried Charron angrily-for Paris and perdition were synonymous in his mind. 'I feared this. To Paris! Why, I have not now to save an angel from falling, but to bring back a lost one to the right way. Who has told you of Paris? Paris!

Paris!'

And the good man absolutely gasped for breath. All old steady people in the provinces-and they say they have good reason for it in the experience of their sons—regard the capital as a place in which virtue is impossible; whilst the young invariably direct their glances and their hopes thitherward, as to a kind of El Dorado. The conflict of the two prejudices often breaks up the

peace of families, and produces warmer discussions than that which ensued between Mina and her adoptive father.

They parted in anger; and Mina, on reaching her little room, sat down in a wretched mood to review her condition, and repent of many absurdities of conduct and opinion. She felt that it would not much longer be possible for her to remain in that house; and the idea suddenly suggested itself, that if she were to go to Paris, she might be able to find some better clue to her father's fate than her mother had found. At anyrate, this was the topic of persuasion she used to convince herself of the propriety of a very rash step. Obeying, as it were, an irresistible impulse, she set to work to make a little packet of her things, including the miniature-case which had been her mother's, and determined to depart secretly the very next morning before the family was stirring. She wrote a letter to Charron, containing a number of reasons that suggested themselves as her pen moved, and lay down to take a few hours of rest, disturbed at first by melancholy dreams of parting with old friends, and then by golden visions of the future.

When the family rose next morning, every one waited impatiently for the appearance of Mina-the women, in order to commence a series of silent persecutions which they had planned; and Charron, in hopes that calm thought would have rendered her more pliant to his will. After waiting in vain some time, they sent to her room; and Caroline could not repress a feeling of delight when it was found that she had fled. This was her first movement, and bad, in contradiction to the saying; but when Charron exclaimed: 'Poor child, may the winds be softened for her!' his eldest daughter touched his hand, and an electric current of sympathy and regret passed through their frames. No one, however, thought it wise or necessary to undertake a pursuit; and when Mina, who, after walking along the road several miles, began to feel faint and frightened, looked back-in fear, as she persuaded herself, but somewhat in hope, that they would follow her, and constrain her to return-she saw that there was no need to hurry, and that, in reality, she had broken the only ties that bound her to any living thing on this earth.

IV.

But there was a good deal of bravery in that young girl; and after some sobbing on a bank by the roadside, she dried her eyes and composed her countenance, and proceeded steadily on her journey. Her whole wealth consisted in a little more than twenty francs, which she had been saving to buy herself a gown more in accordance with her ideas of elegance than the one she wore even on Sundays; in some trinkets that belonged to her mother; and in a few articles of costume, which yet made a bundle almost too

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