cowed the nun.

"She has had a romance," whispered some wag of fourteen, when
Mademoiselle Brun first appeared in the schoolroom; and that became the
accepted legend regarding her.

"What are you saying of me?" she asked one day, when her rather sudden
appearance caused silence at a moment when silence was not compulsory.

"That you once had a romance, mademoiselle," answered some daring girl.

"Ah!"

And perhaps the dusky wrinkles lapsed into gentler lines, for some one
had the audacity to touch mademoiselle's hand with a birdlike tap of one
finger.

"And you must tell it to us."

For there were no nuns present, and mademoiselle was suspected of having
a fine contempt for the most stringent of the convent laws.

"No."

"But why not, mademoiselle?"

"Because the real romances are never told," replied Mademoiselle Brun.

But that was only her way, perhaps, of concealing the fact that there was
nothing to tell. She spoke in a low voice, for her class shared the long