'Isn't she beautiful?' I said, when, at the expiration of the hour,
Jeannette disappeared, wrapped in her mantle.

'No; not to my eyes.'

'Why, what more can you require, Doctor? Look at her rich coloring,
her hair--'

'There is no mind in her face, Mrs. Corlyne.'

'But she is still a child.'

'She will always be a child; she will never mature,' answered our
surgeon, going up the steep stairs to his room above.

Jeannette came regularly, and one morning, tired of the bead-work, I
proposed teaching her to read. She consented, although not without an
incentive in the form of shillings; but, however gained, my scholar
gave to the long winter a new interest. She learned readily; but as
there was no foundation, I was obliged to commence with A, B, C.

'Why not teach her to cook?' suggested the major's fair young wife,
whose life was spent in hopeless labors with Indian servants, who,
sooner or later, ran away in the night with spoons and the family
apparel.

'Why not teach her to sew?' said Madame Captain, wearily raising her
eyes from the pile of small garments before her.