.

THE TRUE PEARL AND THE FALSE.
"What can be the matter?
What have I done to her ?" Claire Fromont very often wondered when she thought of Sidonie.
She was entirely ignorant of what had formerly taken place between her friend and Georges at Savigny.

Her own life was so upright, her mind so pure, that it was impossible for her to divine the jealous, mean-spirited ambition that had grown up by her side within the past fifteen years.

And yet the enigmatical expression in that pretty face as it smiled upon her gave her a vague feeling of uneasiness which she could not understand.

An affectation of politeness, strange enough between friends, was suddenly succeeded by an ill-dissembled anger, a cold, stinging tone, in presence of which Claire was as perplexed as by a difficult problem.