OF THE FOREST. 57

Susette and Fanchon having wiped away their
offences, as they thought, by the repetition of
the prescribed modicum of Ave-Marias and
Pater-nosters, returned, not in the least hum-
bled thereby, to their usual situations in the
schoolroom, where presently they failed not
to administer fresh cause of dissatisfaction to
each other, which being taken up by the
parties on either side, the whole household
was shortly again all in flames, and Madame
Bulé found it more difficult than ever to set
things in order. After various admonitions, all
of which she found inefficient, the worthy lady
sent a second time for me, and I undertook
to admonish the young people in a discourse,
which accordingly I delivered in an apartment
of the house set aside for purposes of this kind,
where I had formerly given many lectures on
different subjects to the young people.

I took the text, or mottc, of my discourse
from the various beauties exhibited in a
highly cultivated garden. “I understand,
my daughters,” I said, “that your minds
have lately been painfully, and I may say
sinfully, agitated by envious feelings re-
specting each other, and by the vain desire