persuasive smile. She took it with one hand, and with the other turned
the key in the gate, leaving Percival outside. It was five minutes
before she returned; and she then, with the same prim, smileless
expression of countenance, opened the gate and motioned him to follow.

The kind-hearted boy sighed as he cast a glance at the desolate and
poverty-stricken appearance of the house, and thought within himself:
"Ah, pray Heaven she may be my relation; and then I shall have the right
to find her and that sweet girl a very different home!" The old woman
threw open the drawing-room door, and Percival was in the presence of his
deadliest foe! The armchair was turned towards the entrance, and from
amidst the coverings that hid the form, the remarkable countenance of
Madame Dalibard emerged, sharp and earnest, directly fronting the
intruder.

"So," she said slowly, and, as it were, devouring him with her keen,
steadfast eyes,--"so you are Percival St. John! Welcome! I did not know
that we should ever meet. I have not sought you, you seek me! Strange--
yes, strange--that the young and the rich should seek the suffering and
the poor!"

Surprised and embarrassed by this singular greeting, Percival halted
abruptly in the middle of the room; and there was something inexpressibly
winning in his shy, yet graceful confusion. It seemed, with silent
eloquence, to apologize and to deprecate. And when, in his silvery
voice, scarcely yet tuned to the fulness of manhood, he said feelingly,
"Forgive me, madam, but my mother is not in England," the excuse evinced
such delicacy of idea, so exquisite a sense of high breeding, that the
calm assurance of worldly ease could not have more attested the chivalry
of the native gentleman.