When I returned home I said: "Madame, I have two hundred francs here in my desk; they shall be yours if you will not undeceive a lady who is coming here to assure herself that I am respectable and well-educated, and that I am Miss Leonard, an orphan, and of an honourable family." Madame coloured and hesitated; she was surprised at my audacity; but I knew that she had bills coming due just then, and that she was extravagant.

We, her pupils, had talked over these things.

She hesitated, but in the end agreed to oblige her dear child, who had been to her so good and so profitable a pupil.

Perhaps she thought I acted with the consent of my mother, that it was not her affair, and that Providence had sent her my little offering to help her to pay her just debts.
Mrs.Hill came the next day; a word satisfied her, and she only stayed about three minutes.

She was preparing to leave Paris for Rome, and had many affairs to attend to in the meantime.