"I hope I shall know how to treat a lady and a
teacher, both in one, and a member of my household. Besides that, I
shall have very little to do with you, indeed. Just now it is
different--we are coming to terms; we have not made them yet, however. I
always save my wife this trouble, if possible.--Ah! there she comes, at
last," as a mild, lady-like looking woman emerged from an adjoining
chamber, somewhat elaborately dressed for that early hour, and followed
by a stream of pale, pretty little girls. "Madame La Vigne," he said,
rising ceremoniously, "permit me to introduce to you Miss Miriam Harz,"
reading the name slowly from the card again, which he took from the
wall, "'a candidate for the position of instructress at
Beauseincourt.'--Say, how do you like her looks?"
I had come to the conclusion by this time that Mr. La Vigne was
decidedly as eccentric as his advertisement, and that his vagaries and
personalities were not worth minding or estimating in the consideration
in question.
So, when Madame La Vigne replied to his abrupt query, "Oh, very, _very_
much, indeed!" and held out her kind hand to me, I took it without
misgiving, and the first glance we interchanged contained freemasonry.
From that time Colonel Prosper La Vigne fell gracefully back into his
proper position, and I talked away fluently enough with his lady, as he
pompously called his wife.
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