106 EGLANTINE OR

 

panied Doralice in nearly all her walks ; pointed out
to her all the places of interest he had sketched or
described in his verses. Doralice admired above all
the vine grove where he composed his delightful idyll
of Mirtyle.

Doralice and Eglantine remained a week with
Gessner. They met him in the midst of his family,
saw him at his occupations, and he was ever the same
mild man—a true philosopher and worthy painter of
nature.

After an absence of two months, Doralice and her
daughter found themselves once more at their house
in Morges. Isabella came and passed part of winter
with them.

Spring had again come round; it was now two
years since Doralice had left Paris. Eglantine was
nearly twenty, and was the pride and delight of her
mother.

One evening as they were walking by the lake they
met a young man dressed in black ; he walked slowly,
and seemed lost in some sad reverie. In passing
Doralice he raised his eyes, and started with surprise.
. . . Doralice recognised him at once as the Vis-
count Arzelle. After the usual compliments were
over, he told Doralice that he had just lost his father,