'You have proved your point,' said Helen, mischievously, 'that Roman Catholic customs are not as original as they are supposed by some to be. It was a very curious concurrence of circumstances, that at the time Herod's Temple was set on fire by Titus, the temple of Delphi (the chief in request among the heathens) was utterly overthrown by an earthquake, and that neither of them could afterwards be repaired. It seems as if God then intended to put an end both to Jewish ceremonies and heathenish idolatry, and that the kingdom of Christ should be established.'

'I wanted to prove that there is a better foundation for the practices than people generally suppose,' returned May, not willing to give up her point.

'But not a reason for observing them, said Helen. 'It seems that M. de Brignola has given you no answer at all, belonging, as he professedly does, to a Christian Church. He is not the only one who has compared Roman Catholics to Pharisees. Jerome compared the women who carried about pieces of wood reported to be from the true cross, and who wore short sentences of the Gospel as charms, to Pharisees; but that was not holding them up for our imitation. M. de Brignola is generally successful in argument; but if he furnished you with the information of which you have given me the benefit, in justification of the idolatrous practices common in the Church of Rome, he has in this instance signally failed.'

Here Sylvie came to tell Helen that the doctor was with Frances, and May was left to herself, to meditate on what M. de Brignola had said to her. The joining Sir Lionel did not seem so hopelessly impossible as it had before appeared, and she indulged the thought that her lucky star, under which people used to say she was born, and which had since turned

THE MISSING MAID.

265

into a comet, might return from its expedition and help her out of her difficulty; that Sir Lionel might write again, and tell her to join him at once; and that it might just happen at the time that M. de Brignola was going to Italy with his sister. What a pleasant association of circumstances that would be! Sir Lionel would like her to travel under the escort of one for whom he entertained so high, an opinion. She would have the pleasure of that sister's company of whom M. de Brignola spoke in such enthusiastic terms, and the benefit of his local knowledge at the places where they rested, with the prospect of meeting Sir Lionel at the end of the journey. The dream, pleasant though it was, and not seeming entirely foundationless, lost in firmness as she thought of laying it before Helen, for some instinct told her that she would not approve of the plan; but the thought, nevertheless, so far haunted her as to interfere with her usual night's sleep. When she rang her bell the next morning, it was answered by Sylvie, and, looking up at the unexpected face, she said,

'Will you send Alsie to me? Have you come to tell me anything about Frances?'

'I don't see much change in Miss Frances,' returned the woman, curtly. I suppose, from what the doctor says, we can't look for much at present, poor lamb! And as to sending the young woman, that's more than I can do. She took herself off somewhere last night, and has not thought proper to show herself since. Most likely she was off to that "Shoto de Flor" (Château des Fleurs), 'or some such unreputable place. When young women give themselves up to that sort of thing, particular if they have a bit of natural colour in their faces, there's no knowing what won't be the end of it!'

May, colouring, and impatient at Sylvie's long maundering

speech, asked, concernedly, if she meant that Alsie had been out all night.

'What should I say it for else?' asked the woman, in a way May thought impertinent. It's just what I predetermined. She goes from here dressed in the highest of style: no one could suppose she was after any good.'

May was about to joke Sylvie on her want of charity in predetermining anything so manifestly to the poor girl's detriment, but humbled, as she remembered her disregard of warnings, said, conciliatingly,

'What must be done, Sylvie?'

'I know what mustn't be done,' was the ungracious reply. 'Miss Frances must not be told of it.

She, poor lamb, sees

I'd just send in a note

things with her eyes open, bless her! to Miss Douglas, and ask her advice: she has a clear head as well as a good heart.'

May felt a little piqued at words which insinuated that, if Helen had a clear head and a good heart, she had neither the one nor the other; but, remembering she had disregarded a warning, the value of which was now made painfully manifest, she at once acted on Sylvie's suggestion.

Helen felt helpless in the matter. Her thoughts were preoccupied with Frances, who now lay almost in a state of stupor, but she advised that Dr. Milman should be consulted, and told Sylvie to accompany May to his house, and put him in possession of all the circumstances.

Sylvie suggested that the man with a lame foot was as likely as any one she could think of to put them on the right track, for that he seemed to be a good deal taken up with the young woman himself.

May made use of this hint, by communicating it to the

doctor, and, before leaving, told him further, that as Sylvie could not be spared from Frances, and he might not recognize Alsie, it would be necessary she should help in the search. So it was settled that May and the doctor should go in quest of Alsie.

CHAPTER XX.

"T is not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after.'

'You trench upon my patience.'

HE doctor had no difficulty in finding Pierre Moreau's place of abode. It was near the Faubourg St. Antoine, and thither he went, accompanied by May, who, once awakened to a sense of Alsie's danger, was ready for any amount of self-surrender to effect her deliverance.

Dr. Milman knew the man of whom they were in search to be in very necessitous circumstances; that he had no resource for present subsistence other than any accidental work he might pick up; but, from his respectable appearance, he was not prepared for the squalor and filth they had to encounter in search of him.

The house to which they were directed appeared to be a restaurant of the lowest description, respecting which it was difficult to determine whether it was only half finished or in a state of patching up, as the woodwork was its original colour, and some of the window-frames were still unglazed. It had a wretched, deserted, shabby appearance; and, except for a canvas suspended over the doorway, announcing in flaming characters that amusements of different descriptions were going