She caught the prohibited smile, though I passed my hand over my month to conceal it; and again she made room for me to sit beside her.

I shook my head, though temptation penetrated to my senses at the moment, and once more I told her to go on.
"Well, then, if ever you are at the head of a large establishment, dismiss nobody.

To speak truth, monsieur (and to you I will speak truth), I despise people who are always making rows, blustering, sending off one to the right, and another to the left, urging and hurrying circumstances.

I'll tell you what I like best to do, monsieur, shall I ?" She looked up again; she had compounded her glance well this time--much archness, more deference, a spicy dash of coquetry, an unveiled consciousness of capacity.

I nodded; she treated me like the great Mogul; so I became the great Mogul as far as she was concerned.
"I like, monsieur, to take my knitting in my hands, and to sit quietly down in my chair; circumstances defile past me; I watch their march; so long as they follow the course I wish, I say nothing, and do nothing; I don't clap my hands, and cry out 'Bravo! How lucky I am!' to attract the attention and envy of my neighbours--I am merely passive; but when events fall out ill--when circumstances become adverse--I watch very vigilantly; I knit on still, and still I hold my tongue; but every now and then, monsieur, I just put my toe out--so--and give the rebellious circumstance a little secret push, without noise, which sends it the way I wish, and I am successful after all, and nobody has seen my expedient.
So, when teachers or masters become troublesome and inefficient--when, in short, the interests of the school would suffer from their retaining their places--I mind my knitting, events progress, circumstances glide past; I see one which, if pushed ever so little awry, will render untenable the post I wish to have vacated--the deed is done--the stumbling-block removed--and no one saw me: I have not made an enemy, I am rid of an incumbrance." A moment since, and I thought her alluring; this speech concluded, I looked on her with distaste.