but sometimes I contrived a half-day's excursion,
in which Madame Guilbert and one or
two of the governesses and elder pupils were
invited to join, and thus prolonged the
duration of our meetings.

Catherine was delighted at the pleasure
with which I listened to her broken English,
and worked hard and effectually in the
intervals of my visits to read and write my
native language. Now and then Lemaire
and his wife accompanied me; they did it
purposely, not from curiosity, but kindly to
throw a further protection over the poor girl
who seemed to be, as she actually was, alone
in the world except for me.

Time passed, and I came of age. Catherine,
now a beautiful, well-mannered, intelligent
young woman, still remained under the charge
of Madame Guilbert, to whom she had
become warmly attached. My guardian was
relieved from all further responsibility on my
account; and a short visit to England decided
me to prolong my residence abroad for a few
years more. My paternal estate, not too
ample, would, under competent management,
greatly increase in rental and value. By still
economising, I should insure a larger revenue
when I might, perhaps, have greater call for
it. I therefore intrusted everything at home
into the hands of a lawyer of well-earned
reputation, whose father had been the confidential
adviser of mine.

To avoid refitting and furnishing our old,
empty, tumble-down mansion, which would
be a useless expense because of merely
temporary convenience, and also to defer testing
the temper of our country squiresses (about
whose reception of Catherine, on account of
her humble birth, I had some apprehensions),
I quietly begged Madame Guilbert to accompany
Catherine across the Channel, and
Lemaire and his wife to follow on an appointed
day afterwards. I met them at Dover;
proceeded at once to a pleasant watering-place
situated at no great distance to the west; and
three weeks after touching the white cliffs of
Albion, Catherine Boisson, for we could give
her no other surname, became lawfully as well
as happily my own.

On the afternoon of our wedding-day,
Lemaire and his wife, and Madame Guilbert
took leave of Catherine and myself, and we
were left alone. I had requested them to
acquaint the Boissons with the altered position
of their so-styled niece. After lingering
a few days on the English coast, we returned
to the continent, for the purpose of making
an extensive tour. We proceeded to Brussels;
and, after visiting Waterloo, went up the
Rhine, to make a stay of several weeks at
Munich.

In that city of the arts we worked hard
together, like a couple of emulous fellow-
students, at our German, at picture and statue
studying, and at music. Catherine fully
appreciated the value of artistic accomplishments;
and though she had become acquainted
with them too late in life ever to be proficient,
she felt what was due both to me and to
herself too well not to endeavour to be able
to judge and speak of them without hesitation
or ignorance. Her English, too, was
not forgotten. I made it a point to converse
with her principally in my native tongue.
We crossed the Tyrol into Italy, and I had
the delight of witnessing her emotions of
wonder and admiration at first beholding an
Alpine mountain. We leisurely proceeded
southwards and arranged to spend the winter
at Rome.

Soon after our arrival, my banker there,
Torlonia, invited us to one of those crowded
evening parties which he occasionally gave at
his magnificent palace, in the way of business
to the numerous foreigners resident in Rome.
For Catherine it was a sort of "coming out."
I was charmed by the way in which she
stood the test of an introduction to a large
fashionable multitude. She was greatly
admired; and by good luck some of my English
neighbours were there, to whom I took good
care to present my wife. Next day we
received a succession of calls; and I was
afterwards told that these good people were
vastly surprised that instead of marrying a
French beggar girl, as they had been told I
had done, they found a ladylike person,
whom they would have taken to be an
English gentlewoman, if her foreign accent had
not betrayed her. Many took her to be of
Dutch extraction, especially when they
discovered that she was able to reply to questions
in German; and my expressed desire to enter
the diplomatic service was not at all
considered as an unreasonable piece of ambition,
which was in the least impeded by my having
such a wife. All these opportunities of social
and educational improvement (for we were
never idle), were of great advantage to
Catherine. She felt it; and her gratitude
increased, if that were possible, the strength
of the affection she had hitherto borne me.

Was I not happy? Four months passed
away delightfully. Spring was advancing,
and I feared the heats of an Italian summer
for Catherine, whose state of health now
began to fill me with a combination of hopes
and fears. We therefore took a fortnight's
peep at Naples and its environs, and then
travelled by easy stages to the north. We
saw Genoa, Milan, the Simplon, and Geneva;
and, by the end of June had arrived at Paris,
with some intention of residing there; but
Catherine preferred to be within reach of her
good motherly friend Madame Guilbert and
Doctor Lemaire.

Nothing was easier than to gratify her wish.
There would be no compulsion to see more
than we chose of the Boisson family. After
an agreeable journey we were installed in my
old familiar apartment in the very town where
I had met with the incidents which had so
iufluentially shaped my course of life. Our
friends received us with open arms.