As soon as she had found how much time she would have to spare, she begged Charlotte to divide her hours for her, and to these she adhered exactly.  She worked at what was set before her in the way which the Assistant had described to Charlotte.  They let her alone.  It was but seldom that Charlotte interfered.  Sometimes she changed her pens for others which had been written with, to teach her to make bolder strokes in her handwriting, but these, she found, would be soon cut sharp and fine again.

The ladies had agreed with one another when they were alone to speak nothing but French, and Charlotte persisted in it the more, as she found Ottilie more ready to talk in a foreign language, when she was told it was her duty to exercise herself in it.  In this way she often said more than she seemed to intend.  Charlotte was particularly pleased with a description, most complete, but at the same time most charming and amiable, which she gave her one day, by accident, of the school.  She soon felt her to be a delightful companion, and before long she hoped to find in her an attached friend.

At the same time she looked over again the more early accounts which had been sent her of Ottilie, to refresh her recollection with the opinion which the Superior and the Assistant had formed about her, and compare them with her in her own person.  For Charlotte was of opinion that we cannot too quickly become acquainted with the character of those with whom we have to live, that we may know what to expect of them; where we may hope to do anything in the way of improvement with them, and what we must make up our minds, once for all, to tolerate and let alone.

[Illustration:  Charlotte receives Ottilie]

This examination led her to nothing new, indeed; but much which she already knew became of greater meaning and importance.  Ottilie’s moderation in eating and drinking, for instance, became a real distress to her.

The next thing on which the ladies were employed was Ottilie’s toilet.  Charlotte wished her to appear in clothes of a richer and more recherche sort, and at once the clever active girl herself cut out the stuff which had been previously sent to her, and with a very little assistance from others was able, in a short time, to dress herself out most tastefully.  The new fashionable dresses set off her figure.  An agreeable person, it is true, will show through all disguises; but we always fancy it looks fresher and more graceful when its peculiarities appear under some new drapery.  And thus, from the moment of her first appearance, she became more and more a delight to the eyes of all who beheld her.  As the emerald refreshes the sight with its beautiful hues, and exerts, it is said, a beneficent influence on that noble sense, so does human beauty work with far larger potency on the outward and on the inward sense; whoever looks upon it is charmed against the breath of evil, and feels in harmony with himself and with the world.