"Why, I am not for changing when I am well," replied Grace: "Mrs. Harcourt is abroad a great deal, and hers is, all things considered, a very eligible house. Now, what I build my hopes upon, my dear Mrs. Rebecca, is this--that ladies, like some people who have been beauties, and come to _make themselves up_, and wear pearl powder, and false auburn hair, and twenty things that are not to be advertised, you know, don't like quarrelling with those that are in the secret--and ladies who have never made a _rout_ about governesses and _edication_, till lately, and now, perhaps, only for fashion's sake, would upon a pinch--don't you think--rather part with a French governess, when there are so many, than with a favourite maid who knows her ways, _and has_ a good taste in dress, which so few can boast?" "Oh, surely! surely!" said Mrs. Rebecca; and having tasted Mrs. Grace's crême-de-noyau, it was decided that war should be declared against _the governess_. Mad. de Rosier, happily unconscious of the machinations of her enemies, and even unsuspicious of having any, was, during this important conference, employed in reading Marmontel's Silvain, with Isabella and Matilda. They were extremely interested in this little play; and Mrs. Harcourt, who came into the room whilst they were reading, actually sat down on the sofa beside Isabella, and, putting her arm round her daughter's waist, said--"Go on, love; let me have a share in some of your pleasures--lately, whenever I see you, you all look the picture of happiness--Go on, pray, Mad. de Rosier." "It was I who was reading, mamma," said Isabella, pointing to the place over Mad. de Rosier's shoulder-- Une femme douce et sage A toujours tant d'avantage! Elle a pour elle en partage L'agrément, et la raison.'" "Isabella," said Mrs. Harcourt, from whom a scarcely audible sigh had escaped--"Isabella really reads French almost as well as she does English." "I am improved very much since I have heard Mad. de Rosier read," said Isabella. "I don't doubt _that_, in the least; you are, all of you, much improved, I think, in every thing;--I am sure I feel very much obliged to Mad. de Rosier." Matilda looked pleased by this speech of her mother, and affectionately said, "I am glad, mamma, you like her as well as we do--Oh, I forgot that Mad, de Rosier was by--but it is not flattery, however." "You see you have won all their hearts"--_from me_, Mrs. Harcourt was near saying, but she paused, and, with a faint laugh, added--"yet you see I am not jealous. Matilda! read those lines that your sister has just read; I want to hear them again."