No doubt she still remained very delicate, with such poor health that one ever feared that she might expire in a faint sigh; and her legs, moreover, were still too weak to admit of her walking any distance.

But all the same, she was no longer the little wilding, the little ailing flower of the previous spring.
Jahan, who marvelled at the incipient miracle, drew near to the young people.

"Ah!" said he, "your pupil does you honour.

She reads quite fluently, you know, and understands the fine books you send her.

You read to me of an evening now, don't you, Lise ?" She raised her candid eyes, and gazed at Antoine with a smile of infinite gratitude.