er is dead, and she is to be buried tomorrow. To-morrow is
the day we were to have returned to the convent. This is the letter I am
sending to the abbess. She will dispatch another laysister, unless she
orders the country-woman to bring me back to the convent."

"What did the priest say?"

"He said the lay-sister died of a cerebral lethargy, which super-induced
an attack of apoplexy."

"Very good, very good."

"I want him to say fifteen masses for her, if you will let me?"

"Certainly, my dear, they will serve as the priest's reward, or rather as
the reward of his happy ignorance."

I called the peasant woman, and gave her the order to have the masses
said, and bade her tell the priest that the masses were to be said for
the intention of the person who paid for them. She told me that the
aspect of the dead sister was dreadful, and that she had to be guarded by
two women who sprinkled her with holy water, lest witches, under the form
of cats, should come and tear her limb from limb. Far from laughing at
her, I told her she was quite right, and asked where she had got the
laudanum.

"I got it from a worthy midwife, and old friend of mine. We got it to
send the poor lay-sister to sleep when the pains of child-birth should
come on."

"When you put the child at the hospital door, were you recognized?"

"Nobody saw me as I put it into the box, and I wrote a note to say the
child had not been baptized."

"Who wrote the note?"

"I did."

"You will, of course, see that the funeral is properly carried out?"

"It will only cost six francs, and the parson will take that from two
louis which were found on the deceased; the rest will do for masses to
atone for her having had the money."

"What! ought she not to have had the two louis?"

"No," said the nun, "we are forbidden to have any money without the
knowledge of the abbess, under pain of excommunication."

"What did they give you to come here?"

"Ten Savoy sols a day. But now I live like a princess, as you shall see
at supper, for though this worthy woman knows the money you gave her is
for herself she lavishes it on me."

"She knows, dear sister, that such is my intention, and here is some more
to go on with."

So saying I took another ten louis from my purse, and bade the
country-woman spare nothing for the invalid's comfort. I enjoyed the
worthy woman's happiness; she kissed my hands, and told me that I had
made her fortune, and that she could buy some