MOISI

Madame Beck was a most consistent character; forbearing with all the

world, and tender to no part of it. Her own children drew her into no devia-

tion from the even tenor of her stoic calm. She was solicitous about her

family, vigilant for their interests and physical well-being; but she never

seemed to know the wish to take her little children upon her lap, to press

their rosy lips with her own, to gather them in a genial embrace, to shower

on them softly the benignant caress, the loving word.

I have watched her sometimes sitting in the garden, viewing the little

bees afar off, as they walked in a distant alley with Trinette, their bonne; in

her mien spoke care and prudence. I know she often pondered anxiously

what she called "leur avenir;" but if the youngest, a puny and delicate but

engaging child, chancing to spy her, broke from its nurse, and toddling