helpless to prevent them.

"She was, however, on excellent terms with him, affecting even to
be the confidant of his secrets and of his whims. She said:

" 'God wills, or God does not will,' just like a sergeant
announcing to a recruit: 'The colonel has commanded.'

"At the bottom of her heart she deplored my ignorance of the
intentions of the Eternal, which she strove, nay, felt herself
compelled, to impart to me.

"Almost every day, I found in my pockets, in my hat when I lifted
it from the ground, in my box of colors, in my polished shoes,
standing in the mornings in front of my door, those little pious
brochures, which she, no doubt, received directly from Paradise.

"I treated her as one would an old friend, with unaffected
cordiality. But I soon perceived that she had changed somewhat in
her manner; but, for a while, I paid little attention to it.

"When I walked about, whether to the bottom of the valley, or
through some country lanes, I would see her suddenly appear, as
though she were returning from a rapid walk. She would then sit
down abruptly, out of breath, as though she had been running or
overcome by some profound emotion. Her face would be red, that
English red which is denied to the people of all other countries;
then, without any reason, she would grow pale, become the color
of the ground, and seem ready to faint away. Gradually, however,
I would see her regain her ordinary color, whereupon she would