turity. Concha had told him of Don Jose Arguello's
ambition that his children in their youth should have
the education he had been forced to acquire in his
manhood; he had taught them himself, and not-
withstanding his piety and the disapproval of the
priests, had permitted them to read the histories,
travels, and biographies he received once a year
from the City of Mexico. Rezanov had met
Madame de Stael and other bas bleus, and given
them no more of his society than politeness de-
manded, but although astonished at the amount of
information this young girl had assimilated, he
found nothing in her manner of wearing her intel-
lectual crown to offend his fastidious taste. She
was wholly artless in her love of books and of dis-
cussing them; and nothing in their contents had dis-
turbed the sweetest innocence he had ever met. Of
the little arts of coquetry she was mistress by inheri-
tance and much provocation, but her unawakened
inner life breathed the simplicity and purity of the
elemental roses that hovered about her in his
thoughts. Her very unsusceptibility made the game
more dangerous; if it piqued him--and he aspired
to be no more than human--he either should have
to marry her, or nurse a sore spot in his conscience
for the rest of his life; and for neither alternative
had he the least relish.

He dismissed the subject at last with an impatient
shrug. Perhaps he was a conceited ass, as his Eng-