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Rh father's weak points in these conjugal arguments, and, availing herself of the ascendency she at this time had over him, always took her mother's part, and, not inaptly, called herself her watch-dog.

Madame Phlipon, no doubt, felt that her strength was failing, and her experience must have warned her of some of the trials that were in store for her daughter when she should be no more. Her eyes used to follow the girl about everywhere with a wistful tenderness, and she seemed, as it were, to envelop her with the brooding intensity of maternal love—a love that yearned to see her child sheltered in some home of her own before death snatched from her a mother's care. Without exactly daring to utter all she thought and feared, she would often urge Manon to accept one of the many suitors who sought her in marriage. At first she did not particularly press the matter, but when Manon was twenty-one she entreated her earnestly to accept a certain respectable jeweller who had proposed to her. She represented to her daughter that here was a man in a comfortable position, honest, upright, and of good reputation, who had the highest regard for her, and was quite willing to follow her lead. The following dialogue, given in the Memoirs brings the situation vividly before one. Quoth Manon:—

"But, Mamma, I don't want a husband whom I am to guide: he would be too big a child for me."

"Do you know that you are a very whimsical girl, for you would certainly not like a master?"

"Let us understand each other, dear Mamma; I should not like a husband to order me about, he would only teach me to resist him; but neither do I wish to rule my husband. Either I am much mistaken, or those creatures six feet high, with beards on their chins, seldom fell to make us feel they are the stronger; now, if the good man should suddenly bethink himself to remind me of his strength,