THE OFFICER'S WIDOW. 25 "She informeth the minds of her children with wisdom, she fashioneth their manners from the example of her own goodness. The word of her mouth is the law of their youth; the motion of her eye commandeth their obedience. The care of her family is her whole delight; to that alone she applieth her study; and elegance, with frugality, is seen in her mansion. The troubles of the husband are alleviated by her counsels and sweetened by her endearments; he putteth his heart in her bosom and receiveth comfort. 66 Happy is the man that made her his wife-happy the child that calleth her mother." "I am extremely obliged for your kindness and the trouble you are taking with my son," said the lady, tendering me a chair." "Nothing, madam,” I replied. "Do not mention it. If a knowledge of French will further the interests of your promising boy,—and no doubt a knowledge of French is serviceable for any young man, he will have it. Indeed, I am always anxious to encourage perseverance and industry in the young, and take a pleasure in watching their progress." We sat down to tea. On my right was little Popsy, with her long auburn hair screening her snow-white shoulders, while her clear blue eye was peering furtively at the moustached stranger. Opposite was Richard, with pale face and bright intelligent eyes, and a countenance that bore the saddened look of suffering-poor Richard being the victim of a severe spinal affection. Then next to him was Janet, familiarly termed Jumps, a laughing girl in her teens, by whose side sat her brother Alpha, a robust, open-countenanced lad about eleven years of age. My protégé sat by his mother's side. After tea, the young people went into the garden to play, and their merry laugh blended with the widow's thanks to God for His kindness to her in all her troubles. Her daughter was a blessing; Rudolphe's indomitable perseverance 26 THE OFFICER'S WIDOW. fanned her hope that brighter days were in store for her young family. Her struggles had been great, for her income was limited, being only the pension of an officer's widow. She was in hopes that Government would, from the services that her departed husband had rendered to his country, settle a small annuity on Richard, as he would be a cripple for life; but hope had been often deferred; yet still she trusted, and still she thanked God for the blessings which she enjoyed. "I have had struggles, it is true; but by," she said smilingly, "frugality and the Providential blessings that have attended me, I have been able to struggle on respectably, and to give my children a tolerable education. Rudolphe and Amy attend a dayschool, and in the evenings they form a class and improve themselves by teaching the others. A lady is very kindly giving lessons in music to Amy who, in her turn, gives Popsy lessons; and as for my dear Henry, we hear from him often. He is doing very well in the West Indies. Our table," she added, with a smile," is not loaded with the luxuries of former days, but we have many comforts and many happy evenings. As for Rudolphe, I am sure he will succeed in life, and that's the bright star that cheers my heart. His rise will be the uplifting of my little family,—and my heart tells me it will be so." "I left," saying, "May God in his kindness fulfil the widow's prediction!" CHAPTER III. THE STUDIO.-THIERS.-GUIZOT.-MADEMOISELLE M ONTHS rolled on, and my young friend was delighted at the progress he had made. At our monthly soirée, when the classes met to enact a scene from Molière, or recite a morceau from Corneille, or Racine, "Mon Petit," as I familiarly called him, distinguished himself as an elocutionist, and secured for himself the good opinion of his fellow-labourers of love. Yes, labourers of love, for the simplicity and easy method of teaching, and the spirit of emulation that was created among the pupils, converted ordinary tasks into a pleasure, and many, at the present day, refer to those monthly réunions as the most useful and the happiest moments of their lives. Much is in the power of a teacher to secure, not only the progress of his pupils-not only their happiness for the time being, but their after enjoyment and future welfare. At an early age-when the mind is free from prejudice, unhardened by wilfulness, but plastic and open to convictioncareful counsels instilled into the youthful mind are never wholly effaced. Seeds sown under the genial influence of virtuous example, spring up into stately trees, and the weeds of deceit and selfishness, of ill-gained pelf and power, are blighted by its powerful rays, and never rise high enough to choke them. The mind, once strong in virtue, remains so until Death. Rudolphe did not confine his acquirements to French alone; he had attained a good knowledge of general history; was a good reader, writer, speller, and arithmetician; for, without these-acquirements are baubles, kites without tails-pretty, but useless. A portion of the day he devoted to drawing and mechanics. His studio,—his "little room under the slates,”was ornamented with well-executed diagrams; but more prominent than anything else was the inscription over the mantelpiece, written in bold letters, with an ornamental border, "LABOR OMNIA VINCIT.” In that barely furnished room in St. Clement's Inn, which the young student rented for a few shillings a week, he laboured hard for he was not ignorant of the fact that learning was the result of industry, and that fame is not thrust upon us, but is the recompense of labour,-regularly and vigorously continued, of calm intrepidity, and courage, which fatigues cannot weary, and contrivance which impediments cannot exhaust. Rudolphe was soon conversant with Molière and Racine, and in that little room he learnt from Lamartine that— "Le labor social est le travail quotidien et obligatoire de tout homme qui participe aux périls et aux bénéfices de la société." In that little attic, by the dim lamp, the young student read that "M. Thiers n'a été bercé en venant au monde sur les genoux d'une duchesse.........Il médite sans efforts, il produit sans épuisements, il marche sans fatigue." He learnt that, on entering the Chamber on any given day, when the debate is of more than ordinary interest, on casting the eye across the gallery, it rests upon a little man, whose head is only visible, whose countenance is far from prepossessing, yet vivacious, and expressive,-whose bright keen eyes are observable through an enormous pair of spectacles, and on whose thin lips there lurks a continual smile, full of sarcasm and irony,―he learnt that that little man, humble in appearance, modestly dressed, without great physical powers, -is one of the most eminent personages of the age-the most powerful orator of the French Chamber; that that little man, of mean appearance, is no other than M. Thiers, the celebrated historian and journalist, Minister of the Council, Member of the French Academy, with every honour that France can bestow upon him—a meet reward for his extraordinary talent. He read that this M. Thiers, who is one of the first men of the age, was a few years previously a poor lad, in an obscure village, without friends, without fortune, who raised himself by his own industry to the proud position which commanded all the favours that the world can heap on man. At the bar, the profession he had struggled to attain, M. Thiers found there was little chance of his making any figure at Aix, where birth and interest were the passports to distinction. He saw the extreme difficulty under which he laboured to emerge from the obscurity of his birth, and he then determined, with a fellowstudent, M. Mignet, to push fortune where alike they might run the chance of being entered in the race. The two friends reached Paris, rich in talent, full of hope, but poor in purse. First struggles are full of hopes and blights, but in a short time Thiers changed his first lodging, which he thus describes :"My first abode in Paris was a dark room, in the fourth story of a house at the bottom of the passage Montesquieu, one of the most densely populated and noisy localities of Paris. A washhand stand, a basin, a bed with white curtains, two chairs, and a small table, rather shaky on its legs, completed the furniture of the apartment." : Such was the abode of the future President of the Council. Rudolphe smiled, and laughingly said: "Am I not as well off as the great Frenchman was?" "Nil desperandum! my young friend. On! on!" In this little room my young friend read that Lafitte was once |