ke such beings
as we are, so we may as well give it up. I don't like to own it, but it
is so; and I may just as well confess it. Just now, when we were all in
the wrong, you had courage enough, not only to refuse to join us, but to
tell us of our fault."

"That is true enough; and the fair-faced girl must have had a pretty
stock of courage to tell us the truth so plainly to our faces."

"But, bless you, these blue-eyed people, who look so soft and gentle, if
once they are worked up--"

"They become courageous as lions."

"Poor Mont Saint-Jean! She has good reason to be thankful to her!"

"What she says is true enough. We could not injure the mother without
harming the child also."

"I never thought of that."

"Nor I either."

"But you see La Goualeuse did,--she never forgets anything."

"The idea of hurting an infant! horrible! Is it not?"

"I'm sure there is not one of us would do it for anything that could be
offered us."

Nothing is more variable than popular passion, or more abrupt than its
rapid transition from bad to good, and even the reverse. The simple yet
touching arguments of Fleur-de-Marie had effected a powerful reaction in
favour of Mont Saint-Jean, who shed tears of deep joy. Every heart
seemed moved; for, as we have already said, the womanly feelings of the
prisoners had been awakened, and they now felt a solicitude for the
unhappy creature in proportion as they had formerly held her in dislike
and contempt. All at once, La Louve, violent and impetuous in all her
actions, twisted the little cap she held in her hand into a sort of
purse, and feeling in her pocket brought out twenty sous, which she
threw into the purse; then presenting it to her companions, exclaimed:

"Here is my twenty sous towards buying baby clothes for Mont
Saint-Jean's child. We will cut them out and make them ourselves, in
order that the work may cost nothing."

"Oh, yes, let us."

"To be sure,--let us all join!"

"I will for one."

"What a capital idea!"

"Poor creature!"

"Though she is so frightfully ugly, yet she has a mother's feelings the
same as another."

"La Goualeuse was right. It is really enough to make one cry one's eyes
out, to see what a wretched collection of rags the poor creature has
scraped together for her baby."

"Well, I'll give thirty sous."

"And I ten."

"I'll give twenty sous."

"I've only got four sous, but I'll give them."

"I have no money at all; but I'll sell my allowa