er the names of Jean Marie Mathieu Valot, but
he was never called anything but _Mademoiselle_. He was the idiot of the
district, but not one of those wretched, ragged idiots who live on
public charity. He lived comfortably on a small income which his mother
had left him, and which his guardian paid him regularly, and so he was
rather envied than pitied. And then, he was not one of those idiots with
wild looks, and the manners of an animal, for he was by no means an
unpleasing object, with his half-open lips and smiling eyes, and
especially in his constant make-up in female dress. For he dressed like
a girl, and showed by that, how little he objected to being called
_Mademoiselle_.

And why should he not like the nickname which his mother had given him
affectionately, when he was a mere child, and so delicate and weak, with
such a fair complexion, a poor little diminutive lad, that he was not as
tall as many girls of the same age? It was in pure love that, in his
earlier years, his mother whispered that tender _Mademoiselle_ to him,
while his old grandmother used to say jokingly:

"The fact is, that as for the _tip-cat_ he has got, it is really not
worth mentioning in a Christian. No offense to God in saying so." And
his grandfather who was equally fond of a joke, used to add: "I only
hope he will not lose it, as he grows bigger, like tadpoles do their
tails!"

And they treated him as if he had really been a girl and coddled him,
the more so as they were very prosperous, and did not require a man to
keep things together.

When his mother and grandparents were dead, _Mademoiselle_ was almost as
happy with his paternal uncle, an unmarried man, who had carefully
attended the idiot, and who had grown more and more attached to him by
dint of looking after him; and the worthy man continued to call Jean
Marie Mathieu Valot, _Mademoiselle_.

He was called so in all the country round as well, not with the
slightest intention of hurting his feelings, but, on the contrary,
because all thought they would please the poor gentle creature who
harmed nobody.

The very street boys meant no harm by it, accustomed as they were to
call the tall idiot in a frock and cap, so; but it would have struck
them as very extraordinary, and would have led them to in rude fun, if
they had seen him dressed like a boy.

_Mademoiselle_, however, took care of that, for his dress was as dear to
him as his nickname. He delighted in wearing it, and,