and I am to be a mere spectator. You will feel with me that this is
a cruel position for a coeur de mere. I count the days till our
three months are over, and I know that you will join with me in my
prayers. Aurora walks the streets alone. She goes out in the
tramway; a voiture de place costs five francs for the least little
course. (I beseech you not to let it be known that I have sometimes
had the weakness . . .) My daughter is sometimes accompanied by a
gentleman--by a dozen gentlemen; she remains out for hours, and her
conduct excites no surprise in this establishment. I know but too
well the emotions it will excite in your quiet home. If you betray
us, chere Madame, we are lost; and why, after all, should any one
know of these things in Geneva? Aurora pretends that she has been
able to persuade herself that she doesn't care who knows them; but
there is a strange expression in her face, which proves that her
conscience is not at rest. I watch her, I let her go, but I sit
with my hands clasped. There is a peculiar custom in this country--
I shouldn't know how to express it in Genevese--it is called "being
attentive," and young girls are the object of the attention. It has
not necessarily anything to do with projects of marriage--though it
is the privilege only of the unmarried, and though, at the same time
(fortunately, and this may surprise you) it has no relation to other
projects. It is simply an invention by which young persons of the
two sexes pass their time together. How shall I muster courage to
tell you that Aurora is now engaged in this delassement, in company
with several gentlemen? Though it has no relation to marriage, it
happily does not exclude it, and marriages have been known to take
place in consequence (or in spite) of it. It is true that even in
this country a young lady may marry but one husband at a time,
whereas she may receive at once the attentions of several gentlemen,
who are equally entitled "admirers." My daughter, then, has