at she plied her needle with increased rapidity. Calabash,
meanwhile, renewed the fire, superintended the state of the cookery
progressing in the saucepan beside the hearth, and then resumed her seat
near her mother.

"Nicholas is not here yet," said she to her parent. "It is to be hoped
that the old woman who this morning engaged him to meet a gentleman from
Bradamanti has not led him into any scrape. She had such a very offhand
way with her; she would neither give any explanation as to the nature of
the business Nicholas was wanted for, nor tell her name, or where she
came from."

The widow shrugged her shoulders.

"You do not consider Nicholas is in any danger, I see, mother. And,
after all, I dare say you are quite right! The old woman desired him to
be on the Quai de Billy, opposite the landing-place, about seven o'clock
in the evening, and wait there for a person who wished to speak with
him, and who would utter the word 'Bradamanti' as a sort of countersign.
Certainly there is nothing very perilous in doing so much. No doubt
Nicholas is late from having to-day found, as he did yesterday,
something on the road. Look at this capital linen which he contrived to
filch from a boat, in which a laundress had just left it!" So saying,
she pointed to one of the pieces of linen Amandine was endeavouring to
pick the mark out of. Then, addressing the child, she said, "What do
folks mean when they talk of filching?"

"I believe," answered the frightened child, without venturing to look
up, "it means taking things that are not ours."

"Oh, you little fool! It means stealing, not taking. Do you
understand?--stealing!"

"Thank you, sister!"

"And when one can steal as cleverly as Nicholas, there is no need to
want for anything. Look at that linen he filched yesterday; how
comfortably it set us all up; and that, too, with no other trouble than
just taking out the marks; isn't it true, mother?" added Calabash, with
a burst of laughter, which displayed her decayed and irregular teeth,
yellow and jaundiced as her complexion.

The widow received this pleasantry with cold indifference.

"Talking of fitting ourselves up without any expense," continued
Calabash, "it strikes me we might possibly do so at another shop. You
know quite well that an old man has come, within the last few days, to
live in the country-house belonging to M. Griffon, the doctor of the
hospital at Paris. I mean that lone house about a hundred steps from