Listen a minute.

Mother does not know it, but I keep all the waste bits of white silk, and have a drawer full of them, for just nothing except the pleasure of looking at them, and smoothing them over from time to time.

And I have another secret, but this is a very serious one! When I wake up, there is every morning near my bed a great, white object, which gently flies away." He did not smile, but appeared firmly to believe her.

Was not all she said, in her simple way, quite natural?
A queen in the magnificence of her courtly surroundings could not have conquered him so quickly.

She had, in the midst of this white linen on the green grass, a charming, grand air, happy and supreme, which touched him to the heart, with an ever-increasing power.