Touched to the heart, Madame Forestier took the poor, rough hands in hers, drawing her tenderly toward her, her voice filled with tears: "Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine were false. They were not worth more than 500 francs at most." THE WALL OPPOSITE BY PIERRE LOTI [Illustration] _Louis Marie Julien Viaud, known as Pierre Loti, was born at Rochefort in 1850, of an old Protestant family. He shipped aboard the "Borda" in 1867, and made many voyages to India and elsewhere in the East. This young naval officer was so modest and retiring that his comrades called him "Loti," after the name of a little flower of India which discreetly hides itself. In 1891 he was elected to the Academy. His chief works are "Le Marriage de Loti," 1882, "Madame Chrysanthème," 1887, "Japoneries d'Automne," "Le Roman d'un Spahi," etc._ _Loti is an impressionist, a personal psychologist--giving reflections of the passing show, fleeting things. "He has an exquisite instinct for the preservation of whatever is antique and beautiful--a Pied Piper who draws his admirers after him whether they will or no."_ _"The Wall Opposite" is an exquisite bit of symbolism, worthy to stand, as it does, in the same volume with the author's "Papillon de Mite."_ [Illustration] THE WALL OPPOSITE BY PIERRE LOTI Translated by R. W. Howes, 3d. Copyright, 1907, by P. F. Collier & Son. 'Way at the farther end of a court they lived, in a modest little suite, the mother, the daughter, and a maternal parent already quite aged--their aunt and great-aunt--whom they had come to shelter. The daughter was still very young, in the fleeting freshness of her eighteen years, when they were compelled, after a reverse of fortune, to withdraw there into the most secluded corner of their ancestral mansion. The rest of the familiar home, all the bright side that looked out on to the street, it had become necessary to let to some profane strangers, who changed there the aspect of things ancient and obliterated the cherished associations.