occupations, Charles remained with the mother and daughter, finding an

unknown pleasure in holding their skeins, in watching them at work, in

listening to their quiet prattle. The simplicity of this half-monastic

life, which revealed to him the beauty of these souls, unknown and

unknowing of the world, touched him keenly. He had believed such

morals impossible in France, and admitted their existence nowhere but

in Germany; even so, they seemed to him fabulous, only real in the

novels of Auguste Lafontaine. Soon Eugenie became to him the Margaret