way to check the emotion that had evoked them. But in a little
while, as the girl wiped her eyes, I asked her,

"Will you not tell me, Jeanne, why you were thinking so much about
that skipping-rope a little while ago?"

"Why, indeed I will, Monsieur. It was only because I had no right to
come into the parlour with a skipping-rope. You know, of course,
that I am past the age for playing at skipping. But when the servant
said there was an old gentleman...oh!...I mean...that a gentleman
was waiting for me in the parlour, I was making the little girls
jump. Then I tied the rope round my waist in a hurry, so that it
might not get lost. It was wrong. But I have not been in the habit
of having many people come to see me. And Mademoiselle Prefere
never lets us off if we commit any breach of deportment: so I know
she is going to punish me, and I am very sorry about it."...

"That is too bad, Jeanne!"

She became very grave, and said,

"Yes, Monsieur, it is too bad; because when I am punished myself, I
have no more authority over the little girls."

I did not at once fully understand the nature of this unpleasantness;
but Jeanne explained to me that, as she was charged by Mademoiselle
Prefere with the duties of taking care of the youngest class, of
washing and dressing the children, of teaching them how to behave,
how to sew, how to say the alphabet, of showing them how to play,
and, finally, of putting them to bed at the close of the day, she