strange, sad feeling crept over her, and she continued quite
silent during the remainder of the drive. Her thoughts were still busy
in the formation of another plan for the discovery of Lucille, when,
upon her arrival at home, she was informed that M. Lagnier desired
anxiously to see her, having something to communicate.

'Mademoiselle, I have not been idle,' he exclaimed, immediately upon
entering the apartment. 'Here is Lucille's address, and I have seen
her mother. Poor things!' he added, 'they are indeed in want. Their
room is on the sixth floor, and one miserable bed and a broken chair
are all the furniture. For ornament, there was a rose-tree, in a
flower-pot, upon the window-seat: it was withered, like its young
mistress!'

'They are not Parisians?' inquired Adelaide.

'No, no, mademoiselle. From what the mother said, I picked up quite a
little romance concerning them. The husband died two years ago,
leaving them a pretty farm, and a comfortable home in Normandie.
Lucille was very beautiful. All the neighbours said so, and Mrs
Delmont was proud of her child. She could not bear her to become a
peasant's wife, and brought her here, hoping that her beauty might
secure to her a better fate. The young girl had learned a trade, and
with the assistance of that, and the money they had obtained upon
selling the farm, they contrived to manage very well during the first
year. Lucille made no complaint, and her mother thought she was happy.
A Parisian paid her attention, and asked her to become his wife. She
refused; but as he appeared rich, the mother would not hear of
declining the offer. She encouraged him to visit them as much as
possible, and hoped at length to overcome Lucille's dislike to the
marriage. One evening, however, as they were all seated together, a
young man entered the room. He had been an old lover of Lucille's--a
neighbour's son, and an early playmate. She sprang forward eagerly to
meet him, and the rich pretender left the place in a fit of jealous
anger, and they have not seen him since. Then troubles came, one
following another, until at last they fell into the state of
destitution in which I found them. Andre Bernard, who had quarrelled
with his parents in order to follow them, could find no work, and
every sou that Lucille gained was given to him, to save him, as she
said, from ruin or from sin. Last week she sold her hair, to enable
him to return home. She had made him promise that he would do s