"What is it you wish to say to me ?" she added after a pause, coldly and with dignity.
"Mademoiselle," answered Emmanuel in a voice of feeling, "I scarcely know if I have the right to speak to you as I am about to do.

Think only of my desire to be of service to you, and give me the right of a teacher to be interested in the future of a pupil.

Your brother Gabriel is over fifteen; he is in the second class; it is now necessary to direct his studies in the line of whatever future career he may take up.

It is for your father to decide what that career shall be: if he gives the matter no thought, the injury to Gabriel would be serious.

But then, again, would it not mortify your father if you showed him that he is neglecting his son's interests?
Under these circumstances, could you not yourself consult Gabriel as to his tastes, and help him to choose a career, so that later, if his father should think of making him a public officer, an administrator, a soldier, he might be prepared with some special training?
I do not suppose that either you or Monsieur Claes would wish to bring Gabriel up in idleness." "Oh, no!" said Marguerite; "when my mother taught us to make lace, and took such pains with our drawing and music and embroidery, she often said we must be prepared for whatever might happen to us.