[Illustration: 180]
I PROCLAIM Mademoiselle Genseigne’s school the best girls’ school in the
world. I declare miscreants and slanderers any who shall think or say
the contrary. Mademoiselle Genseigne’s pupils are all well-behaved and
industrious, and there is no pleasanter sight to see than all their
small figures sitting so still, and all the heads in a straight row.
They look like so many little bottles into which Mademoiselle Gen-seigne
is busy pouring useful knowledge.
Mademoiselle Genseigne sits very upright at her high desk. She has
a gentle, serious face; her neatly braided hair and her black tippet
inspire respect and sympathy.
Mademoiselle Genseigne, who is very clever, is teaching her little
pupils cyphering.
She says to Rose Benoit:
“Rose Benoit, if I take four from twelve, what have I left?”
“Four?” answers Rose Benoît.
Mademoiselle Genseigne is not satisfied with the answer.
“And you, Emmeline Capel, if I take four from twelve, how much have I
left?”
“Eight,” Emmeline Capel answers.
“You hear, Rose Benoît, I have eight left,” insists Mademoiselle
Genseigne.
Rose Benoît falls into a brown study. Mademoiselle Genseigne has eight
left, she is told, but she has no notion if it is eight hats or eight
handkerchiefs, or possibly eight apples or eight feathers. The doubt has
long tormented her. She can make nothing of arithmetic.
On the other hand, she is very wise in Scripture History. Mademoiselle
Genseigne has not another pupil who can describe the Garden of Eden or
Noah’s Ark as Rose Benoît can. Rose Benoît knows every flower in the
Garden and all the animals in the Ark. She knows as many fairy tales as
Mademoiselle Genseigne herself. She knows all the fables of the Fox and
the Crow, the Donkey and the Little Dog, the Cock and the Hen, and what
they said to each other. She is not at all surprised to hear that the
animals used once to talk. The wonder would be if some one told her they
don’t talk now. She is quite sure she understands what her big dog
Tom says and her little canary Chirp. She is quite right; animals have
always talked, and they talk still; but they only talk to their
friends. Rose Benoît loves them and they love her, and that is why she
understands what they say. To understand each other there is nothing
like loving one another.
To-day Rose Benoît has said her lessons without a mistake. She has won
a good mark. Emmeline Capel has a good mark, too, for knowing her
arithmetic lesson so well.
On coming out of school, she told her mother she had a good mark. Then
she asked her:
“A good mark, mother, what’s the use of it?”
“A good mark is of no use,” Emmeline’s mother answered; “that is the
very reason why we should be proud to get one. You will find out one
day, my child, that the rewards most highly esteemed are just those that
bring honour without profit.”