almost every pursuit, had not given up the idea of making her, to some extent, his assistant, and again induced her to handle the graving tool. He would set her to engrave the edge of a watch-case or to ornament a box, and, in order to give her an interest in this work, he induced her to keep an account book, and divided the profits of these little jobs between them. But the pleasure of purchasing a ribbon or girlish trinket did not compensate her for the time lost to serious study, and she presently put away the graver and never touched it again.
Her life in those days was of unvarying regularity. Every morning she and her mother went to mass, and then to do a little shopping. Lessons from some of the masters already mentioned filled up the rest of the forenoon. In the retirement of her closet she would afterwards study until evening, when her mother read some instructive book to her, she being engaged the while in needlework.
Outwardly, no existence could be more monotonous than was Manon Phlipon's at this time; but what a glow of feeling, what a moving panorama of ever fresh images, what an eager reaching out after self-improvement filled the inward life with a stir of passionate activity. To this power of mental concentration she joined a plenitude of sensations that even in youth it is given to but few to feel; for she had a magnificent physique, and her highly-strung sensitive nerves did not impair a vigour that would not have disgraced an Amazon. This accounts for her being able to study till far into the night, and yet re-awaken with something of the joyous feeling of a bird. Every morning, indeed, was like the spring of the day to her.
This varied intellectual life was poured forth in long
