obliged to pretend to be interested in his grandmother's
philanthropic work. So with a smile on my lips I endured the
superintendent's interminable discourse, punctuating it here and there,
as best I could, by a:

"Ah! really! ... Very strange, indeed! ... I should never have believed
it! ..."

I was absolutely ignorant of the matter to which I replied thus, for my
thoughts were lulled to repose by the constant humming of our loquacious
guide. I was only vaguely conscious that no doubt the persons and things
would have appeared worthy of attention to me if I had been there alone
as an idler, for in that case, I should certainly have asked the
superintendent:

"Who is this Babette, whose name appears so constantly in the complaints
of so many of the inmates?"

Quite a dozen men and women had spoken to us about her, now to complain
of her, now to praise her; and especially the women, as soon as they saw
the superintendent, cried out:

"M'sieur, Babette has again been ..."

"There! that will do, that will do!" he interrupted them, his gentle
voice suddenly becoming harsh.

At other times he would amicably question some old man with a happy
countenance, and say:

"Well, my friend! I suppose you are very happy here?"

Many replied with fervent expressions of gratitude, with which Babette's
name was frequently mingled, and when he heard them speak so, the
superintendent put on an ecstatic air; looking up to heaven with clasped
hands, he said, slowly shaking his head: "Ah! Babette is a very precious
woman, very precious!"

Yes, it would certainly interest one to know who that creature was, but
not under present circumstances, and so, rather than to undergo any more
of this, I made up my mind to remain in ignorance of who Babette was,
for I could pretty well guess what she would be like. I pictured her to
myself as a flower that had sprung up in a corner of these dull
courtyards, like a ray of sun shining through the sepulchral gloom of
these dismal passages.

I pictured her so clearly to myself that I did not even feel any wish to
know her, but yet she was dear to me, because of the happy expression
which they all put on when they spoke of her, and I was angry with the
old women who spoke against her. One thing certainly puzzled me, and
that was, that the superintendent was among those who went into
ecstasies over her, and this made me strongly disinclined to question
him about her, though I had no other reason