spite of Berenger's marriage, his education was
still not supposed to be complete. And when Mericour still demurred with
reluctance to become a burden on the bounty of the noble house, he was
reminded gracefully of the debt of gratitude that the family owed to him
for the relief he had brought to Berenger; and, moreover, Dame Annora
giggled out that, 'if he would teach Nan and Bess to speak and read
French and Italian, it would be worth something to them.' The others of
the family would have hushed up this uncalled-for proposal; but Mericour
caught at it as the most congenial mode of returning the obligation.
Every morning he undertook to walk or ride over to the Manor, and
there gave his lessons to the young ladies, with whom he was extremely
popular. He was a far more brilliant teacher than Lucy, and ten thousand
times preferable to Mr. Adderley, who had once begun to teach Annora her
accidence with lamentable want of success.




CHAPTER XXIII. THE EMPTY CRADLE


            Eager to know
     The worst, and with that fatal certainty
      To terminate intolerable dread,
      He spurred his courser forward--all his fears
      Too surely are fulfilled.--SOUTHEY


Contrary winds made the voyage of the THROSTLE much more tardy than had
been reckoned on by Berenger's impatience; but hope was before him, and
he often remembered his days in the little vessel as much happier than
he had known them to be at the time.

It was in the calm days of right October that Captain Hobbs at length
was putting into the little harbour nearest to La Sablerie. Berenger, on
that morning, had for the first time been seized by a fit of anxiety as
to the impression his face would make, with its terrible purple scar,
great patch, and bald forehead, and had brought out a little black
velvet mask, called a _tour de nez_, often used in riding to protect the
complexion, intending to prepare Eustacie for his disfigurement. He had
fastened on a carnation- sword-knot, would a scarf of the same
colour across his shoulder, clasped a long ostric