nt's hesitation, she respectfully applied her lips to
the end of the slender fingers which Fleur-de-Marie extended to her,
then, kneeling suddenly, she fixed on her an attentive, concentrated
look.

"Come and sit here by me," said La Goualeuse.

"Oh, no, indeed; never, never!"

"Why not?"

"Respect discipline, as my brave Mont Saint-Jean used to say; soldiers
together, officers together, each with his equals."

"You are crazy; there is no difference between us two."

"No difference! And you say that when I see you, as I do now, as
handsome as a queen. Oh, what do you mean now? Leave me alone, on my
knees, that I may look at you as I do now. Who knows, although I am a
real monster, my child may perhaps resemble you? They say that sometimes
happens from a look."

Then by a scruple of incredible delicacy in a creature of her position,
fearing, perhaps, that she had humiliated or wounded Fleur-de-Marie by
her strange desire, Mont Saint-Jean added, sorrowfully:

"No, no, I was only joking, Goualeuse; I never could allow myself to
look at you with such an idea,--unless with your free consent. If my
child is as ugly as I am, what shall I care? I sha'n't love it any the
less, poor little, unhappy thing; it never asked to be born, as they
say. And if it lives what will become of it?" she added, with a mournful
and reflective air. "Alas, yes, what will become of us?"

La Goualeuse shuddered at these words. In fact, what was to become of
the child of this miserable, degraded, abased, poor, despised creature?

"What a fate! What a future!"

"Do not think of that, Mont Saint-Jean," said Fleur-de-Marie; "let us
hope that your child will find benevolent friends in its way."

"That chance never occurs twice, Goualeuse," replied Mont Saint-Jean,
bitterly, and shaking her head. "I have met with you, that is a great
chance; and then--no offence--I should much rather my child had had that
good luck than myself, and that wish is all I can do for it!"

"Pray, pray, and God will hear you."

"Well, I will pray, if that is any pleasure to you, Goualeuse, for it
may perhaps bring me good luck. Indeed, who could have thought, when La
Louve beat me, and I was the butt of all the world, that I should meet
with my little guardian angel, who with her pretty soft voice would be
even stronger than all the rest, and that La Louve who is so strong and
so wicked--"

"Yes, but La Louve became very good to you as soon as she reflected that