Heger's face, I had a notion that he had found out there was some mistake. Still I was depressed and bewildered; and in dread of what I was going to say, when the time came, as I knew it must, when he would say something to me, and I should have a chance of answering for myself. And the misfortune was, that _when_ the critical moment came, I wasn't expecting it; because, here, at least, what the author of _Villette_ says of Professor Paul Emanuel was true of M. Heger--everything he did was sudden; and he always contrived to take one by surprise. It was immediately after he had won his triumph over my mother, and in the moment when I myself was under the spell of admiration for his talent, that he turned upon me, in a sort of flash, smiling down upon me (very red and startled to find him so near), and nodding his head with an irritating look of amusement as his penetrating eyes searched my doleful face. '_Aa-ah_,' he said, in a half-playful, but as it sounded to me, more mocking, than kindly tone, '_Aa-ah_' (another nod of the head), 'so this is the little Savage I have to discipline and vanquish, is it? And she is headstrong (_têtue_). Tell me, Mees, am I to be too indulgent? or too severe? (_Dois-je être trop indulgent? ou trop sévère?_') Now, if only I had made the natural reply, the one obviously expected from me--the one any girl in my position would have made, and which I myself should have made if I hadn't been addressed as 'a little savage,' and if I hadn't been smarting under the sense that he must have the worst possible opinion of me, and that I ought to vindicate my honour in some way,--if only, in short, I had remembered my brother's wholesome advice, '_Don't show off_,' that is to say, if only I had said, amiably and nicely, with a timid little smile, '_Trop indulgent, s'il vous plait, Monsieur_,' THEN all would have been well with me; M. Heger would have continued to smile; we should have exchanged amiable glances and parted the best of friends.... But of what use are these speculations? What I _did_ reply to his question of whether he was to be too indulgent or too severe was--'_Ni l'un ni l'autre, Monsieur; soyez juste, celà suffit_' ... and I listened to the broadness of my own British accent, whilst I said it, in despairing wonder! M. Heger's smiles vanished; there came what I took to be a 'look of undying hatred' into his face--it was not perhaps so bad as all that, but ... well, I certainly hadn't conquered his favour. He said something disagreeable about Les Anglaises being over wise, too philosophical for him, which my mother thought was a compliment to my cleverness. But I knew what I had done, and that it could never be undone, henceforth ... Well, but the case really was not quite so desperate perhaps? [1] This chapter is reproduced from the _Cornhill_ by the kind permission of Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co. CHAPTER III MONSIEUR AND MADAME HEGER AS I SAW THEM; AND BELGIAN SCHOOLGIRLS AS I KNEW THEM