"Dear, sweet mamma, how can you think me so hard-hearted and so ungrateful?
I can't tell you how I love you! Let this tell you." With a tender and charming grace, she kissed her mother--then drew back a little and looked at Madame Fontaine.

The subsiding conflict of emotions still showed itself with a fiery brightness in the widow's eyes.

"Do you know what I am thinking ?" Minna asked, a little timidly.
"What is it, my dear ?" "I think you are almost too fond of me, mamma.

I shouldn't like to be the person who stood between me and my marriage--if _you_ knew of it." Madame Fontaine smiled.

"You foolish child, do you take me for a tigress ?" she said playfully.