It was enough to make one slap her, to hear such language; for I'm sure Monsieur de Tiraille was so quiet and gentlemanly, and--and--well, he was not handsome, but with such eyes. I can't find a word to describe them, for picturesque won't do. And then, too, he spoke such excellent English. I suppose I must have looked quite angrily at Patty, for just then Clara pinched my arm. "I thought so," said she, laughing; "you won't make me jealous, dear, about the Signor, now, will you, you dear, handsome girl? I declare I was quite frightened about you at first." "Don't talk such nonsense," I said, though I could not help feeling flattered. "Whatever can you mean?" "Oh, nothing at all," said Clara, laughing. "You can't know what I mean. But come and sit down here, the seat is dry now. Are not flowers sweet after the rain?" So we went and sat down under the hawthorn; and then Clara, who had been at the Cedars two years, began to talk about Monsieur Achille, who was also a refugee, and who was obliged to stay over here on account of the French President; and a great deal more she told me, but I could not pay much attention, for my thoughts would keep carrying me away, so that I was constantly going over the French lesson again and again, and thinking of how stupid I must have looked, and all on in that way, when it did not matter the least bit in the world; and so I kept telling myself. "There!" exclaimed Clara, all at once; "I never did know so tiresome a girl. Isn't she, Patty, tiresome beyond all reason?" But Patty was picking and eating the sour gooseberries--a nasty pig!-- and took not the slightest notice of the question. "It is tiresome," said Clara again; "for I've been talking to you for the last half-hour, about what I am sure you would have liked to know, and I don't believe that you heard hardly a word; for you kept on saying `um!' and `ah,' and `yes'; and now there's the tea-bell ringing. But I am glad that you have come, for I did want a companion so badly. Patty is so big and so stupid; and all the other girls seem to pair off when they sleep in the same rooms. And, besides, when we are both thinking-- that is, both--both--you know. There, don't look like that! How droll it is of you to pretend to be so innocent, when you know all the while what I mean!" I could not help laughing and squeezing Clara's hand as I went in; for somehow I did not feel quite so dumpy and low-spirited as I did a few hours before; and, as I sat over the thick bread-and-butter they gave us--though we were what, in more common schools, they would have called parlour boarders--I began to have a good look about me, and to take a little more notice of both pupils and teachers, giving an eye, too, at Mrs Fortesquieu de Blount.