in like manner the glass door leading from the
corridor to the garden. She took the various brooms that were used for
sweeping the carpets, the dining-room, the passages and stairs, together
with the other utensils, with a care and particularity which no servant,
not even a Dutchwoman, gives to her work. She hated reproof. Happiness
for her was in seeing the cold blue pallid eyes of her cousin, not
satisfied (that they never were), but calm, after glancing about her
with the look of an owner,--that wonderful glance which sees what
escapes even the most vigilant eyes of others. Pierrette's skin was
moist with her labor when she returned to the kitchen to put it in
order, and light the stove that she might carry up hot water to her two
cousins (a luxury she never had for herself) and the means of lighting
fires in their rooms. After this she laid the table for breakfast and
lit the stove in the dining-room. For all these various fires she had
to fetch wood and kindling from the cellar, leaving the warm rooms for
a damp and chilly atmosphere. Such sudden transitions, made with the
quickness of youth, often to escape a harsh word or obey an order,
aggravated the condition of her health. She did not know she was ill,
and yet she suffered. She began to have strange cravings; she liked raw
vegetables and salads, and ate them secretly. The innocent child was
quite unaware that her condition was that of serious illness which
needed the utmost care. If Neraud, the Rogrons' doctor, had told this to
Pierrette before Brigaut's arrival she would only have smiled; life was
so bitter she could smile at death. But now her feelings changed; the
child, to whose physical sufferings was added the anguish of Breton
homesickness (a moral malady so well-known that colonels in the army
allow for it among their men), was suddenly content to be in Provins.
The sight of that yellow flower, the song, the presence of her
friend, revived her as a plant long without water revives under rain.
Unconsciously she wanted to live, and even thought she did not suffer.

Pierrette slipped timidly into her cousin's bedroom, made the fire, left
the hot water, said a few words, and went to wake Rogron and do the same
offices for him. Then she went down to take in the milk, the bread, and
the other provisions left by the dealers. She stood some time on the
sill of the door hoping that Brigaut would have the sense to come to
her; but by that time he was already on h