When we found ourselves alone, she recovered her composure; and I
must say, without considering myself thereby flattered, that she
smiled upon me with one whole side of her face.

"Mademoiselle," I said, taking advantage of her good humour, "I
noticed that Jeanne Alexandre looks a little pale. You know better
than I how much consideration and care a young girl requires at
her age. It would only be doing you an injustice by implication
to recommend her still more earnestly to your vigilance."

These words seemed to ravish her with delight. She lifted her eyes,
as in ecstasy, to the paper spirals of the ceiling, and, clasping
her hands exclaimed,

"How well these eminent men know the art of considering the most
trifling details!"

I called her attention to the fact that the health of a young girl
was not a trifling detail, and made my farewell bow. But she
stopped me on the threshold to say to me, very confidentially,

"You must excuse me, Monsieur. I am a woman, and I love gloy. I
cannot conceal from you the fact that I feel myself greatly honoured
by the presence of a Member of the Institute in my humble
institution."

I duly excused the weakness of Mademoiselle Prefere; and, thinking
only of Jeanne, with the blindness of egotism, kept asking myself
all along the road, "What are we going to do with this child?"