THE DEFORMED GIRL.

A SKETCH FROM LIFE.

"So you will not come and see Marietta ?"

Thus spoke Master Schimp. Master Schimp was a shoemaker, settled in the little German town held in charge by the old general, where I had gone with the baroness.

I followed him; and as he went he said, "So you do not know Marietta ? Well, then, you have something curious to see."

He opened the door; and, as the light streamed into the passage, I saw indeed something which seemed rather to spring than rise out of a chair, and come forward to meet us. I stopped short, and, but for one of Master Schimp's quick keen glances, I think I should have screamed. How shall I describe this something, this poor, strangely-deformed creature? Three feet at most in height, and with a head so out of all just proportion as to recall the pasteboard monstrosities that milliners sometimes use for blocks; her hands, in the absence of arms, sticking out of her shoulders, more like fins, it seemed to me, than hands; without legs, almost without feet;-a maillot set upright on the earth! And yet this lived; it spoke; it had a soul: even now it was colouring deeply.

Master Schimp, who had meant to produce a strong effect, looked just a little remorseful at the extent of his success. This passed, however, with the moment, and a few laughing words with Marietta set him at ease with himself again. "No fear, cousin; 'a friend,' as one says to the patrol. Come now, we are going to have a little French."

And Master Schimp began to exhibit his prodigy. While he recounted, without sparing me a single date or incident, how, after having brought Marietta to live with him, he had first taught her to read and write in German, and then to read and write in French; how he had fol

*From the French of Madame de Gasparin.

lowed this up by arithmetic, the two grammars, geography, and history; and how Marietta had taught herself knitting, embroidering, and all varieties of needlework; while he showed me her copy-books, and drew a crotchet-collar out of the poor girl's work-basket. Marietta, who had been at first even painfully embarrassed, began to be more at her ease. She looked at her cousin with mild eyes so full of gratitude, of affection, of deep respect, of implied confidence, that they seemed able to take in no other object. And I, too, had by this time regained my self-possession. I ventured to look again at Marietta, and again not without a shock; so pitiable, so appalling was this malformation, that the heart knew not what to make of it. It was a contradiction, an impossibility. One's innate sense of fitness seemed outraged by such a strange freak on the part of Nature; and when I remembered that Nature was but another word for the Creator, and that this deplorable travesty had been permitted, a wherefore of fearful import arose within my mind. It came there, however, and was gone like a flash; another look, and the dark surmise passed away for ever. This poor head could boast of its dark, abundant hair, of fine eyes, and of regular features; but it was not in these that its charm was found, but in the tender, inexpressible charm of its expression: in the joy, the peace, the purity, that spoke there with such a pure, restrained simplicity, the soul looking forth so clearly, that one forgot whether the body was there or not.

But had this soul itself-Marietta's-any thoughts about the singular setting in which it found itself? It might be so, but the consciousness was not apparent. After the first embarrassment of my introduction was over, Marietta talked to me without constraint; her voice had a youthful, touching tone in it that went very straight to the heart. Master Schimp was called away, and the expression of her eyes changed a little; they seemed to send forth a dimmer light, as a lamp does after it has been let down.

"My cousin is so kind," she exciaimed, with animation;

"so very kind: he spoils me," she added, with a smile ; "he thinks that I know everything, when I know scarcely anything at all. And everything is his doing; he has been both father and mother to me."

Her eyes filled, and I saw that her heart too was very full. After a short silence, she went on, as if in answer to my unspoken thought.

"I am happy; the Lord Jesus has loved me-a poor little creature like me." (This was the only allusion she made to her infirmities.) "My cousin loves me, too; my sister; everybody. The day is not long; and in the evenings we read together, and are very happy."

"You go out sometimes ?"

"Not now; my cousin had a little carriage made for me, which he used to draw; but since a very serious illness, I have not been able to bear the movement of the wheels." "And you will sometimes wish for a sight of the country ?"

Marietta coloured slightly. "Once I used," she said, "but not now; I look elsewhere." Then, after a short silence, and because she saw me looking sorrowful, she added, "There are flowers in paradise."

"Yes," I thought, "and a glorified body;" but this I did not say to her. She had lived, it was evident, in an atmosphere of kindness; and, having never been exposed to those collisions which wound the heart just when it is seeking to expand, she expressed her feelings artlessly, and just as they arose.

"My greatest sorrow is, that I am ungrateful: yes," she continued, not quite understanding my look of surprise, "you would not have believed it of me; and yet it is so. There are times when I am so cast down; everything seems so dull, and my heart so heavy. Then I could gladly cry; but this never lasts long, and God forgives me for it. He has forgiven me all."

She then began to tell me how she spent her time.

Her cousin had so stored her mind with knowledge, had

so built up her life in the strength of practical faith, that in neither was there room left for weariness or for despair; and this poor being, disinherited even of the outward semblance of humanity, had gone on her way unchallenged by any of those desolating problems which pierce through the very bones and marrow, and make the knees of the strong to bow under them.

Cousin Schimp did nothing, it was plain, by halves; he had finished off his work, just as he had finished off his sentences. It was impossible to look round the room without being struck with the exquisite keeping of its arrangements. Marietta's furniture-arm-chair, table, desk, even her vase of flowers, were all adapted to her height: everything] was pretty, everything perfect in its way; little steps to enable her to reach the window, and the splendid stock which was now beginning to blossom. All this seemed quite fit and natural; the eye was not startled; but as it passed over the little interior picture, and took in all this watchful considerate detail, one felt something like a loving presence there in the warm, wide bounty of a loving thought.

The door burst suddenly open. Six rosy, curly, little girls, basket on arm, rushed in tumultuously, and flew to Marietta, almost overwhelming her with kisses. Now it was that her face lightened up in earnest, and her smile grew heavenly.

"I teach them," she said, "to read and work."

It was worth something to see the happy, self-important look of the little things as they placed themselves on each side of Marietta.

I left her; and as I went into the shop, met Master Schimp, green shade, spectacles, and snuff-box.

"Well!" he said.

I could not speak, but pressed his hands within my own. "She is my child,” he said, in a subdued tone.

"Master Schimp, you are a great man; and Thou, my God, art the great God of earth and heaven!"