rges. He went mad
from a sun-stroke he got in the fields."

"How much do you earn?"

"Five sous a day while the season lasts; I catch 'em as far as the
Braisne. In harvest time, I glean; in winter, I spin."

"You are about twelve years old?"

"Yes, monsieur."

"Do you want to come with me? You shall be well fed and well dressed,
and have some pretty shoes."

"No, my niece will stay with me; I am responsible to God and man for
her," said Uncle Brazier who had come up to them. "I am her guardian,
d'ye see?"

The doctor kept his countenance and checked a smile which might have
escaped most people at the aspect of the man. The guardian wore a
peasant's hat, rotted by sun and rain, eaten like the leaves of a
cabbage that has harbored several caterpillars, and mended, here and
there, with white thread. Beneath the hat was a dark and sunken face,
in which the mouth, nose, and eyes, seemed four black spots. His forlorn
jacket was a bit of patchwork, and his trousers were of crash towelling.

"I am Doctor Rouget," said that individual; "and as you are the guardian
of the child, bring her to my house, in the place Saint-Jean. It will
not be a bad day's work for you; nor for her, either."

Without waiting for an answer, and sure that Uncle Brazier would soon
appear with his pretty "rabouilleuse," Doctor Rouget set spurs to his
horse and returned to Issoudun. He had hardly sat down to dinner, before
his cook announced the arrival of the citoyen and citoyenne Brazier.

"Sit down," said the doctor to the uncle and niece.

Flore and her guardian, still barefooted, looked round the doctor's
dining-room with wondering eyes; never having seen its like before.

The house, which Rouget inherited from the Descoings estate, stands in
the middle of the place Saint-Jean, a so-called square, very long and
very narrow, planted with a few sickly lindens. The houses in this part
of town are better built than elsewhere, and that of the Descoings's was
one of the finest. It stands opposite to the house of Monsieur Hochon,
and has three windows in front on the first storey, and a porte-cochere
on the ground-floor which gives entrance to a courtyard, beyond which
lies the garden. Under the archway of the porte-cochere is the door of
a large hall lighted by two windows on the street. The kitchen is behind
this hall, part of the space being used for a staircase which leads to
the upper floor and to the attic above that. Beyond the kitchen