.

"Cream-puffs!" announced Madame Garneau triumphantly. It was perhaps
the most indigestible edible with which she could have outraged a diet
list, but in that quarter of Paris, where _sous_ were scarce,
cream-puffs were the delicacy _par excellence_, and therefore a
delicacy for all occasions, rare enough in any event, when they could
be obtained. And besides, as Madame Garneau had said, she had her
opinion of doctors--Madame Garneau, even if unconsciously so, was
consistent! "Cream-puffs, _ma petite_! From the _patisserie_ around
the corner--I sent the gamin, who brought the message from Father
Anton, for them. And now what do you say?"

Marie-Louise had neither heart nor appetite for cream-puffs, but she
must needs peek excitedly in through the top of the bag, and thank
Madame Garneau effusively, while she protested earnestly at the
extravagance.

"It is nothing!" declared Madame Garneau, her honest face flushed with
pleasure. She placed the bag on the foot of the bed. "It is
nothing--_ma foi_! And now about Father Anton. He was to have come
this afternoon, eh?"

"Yes," said Marie-Louise.

"Well, then," said Madame Garneau, "he is not coming."

"Not coming!"

"It is his poor!" Madame Garneau exclaimed tartly. "Your Father Anton
has no sense! I would teach him a lesson if I had anything to do with
him! Fancy! The idea! And at his age! He will kill himself! The
gamin's mother was sick, and Father Anton must sit up the night, and
stay there all this day! And it is not once, but all the time he does
that! Bah, I have no patience with him! His heart is too soft! It is
well for his poor that I am not Father Anton!" There was finality in
the shrug of Madame Garneau's shoulders. She glanced at Marie-Louise,
and then her eyes fell upon the paper bag. "Oh, I forgot to tell you!"
she said anxiously. "There is a cream-puff gone from the
quarter-dozen. I gave one to the gamin, he made such eyes at the bag."
She tucked in a refractory wisp of hair that was straying over her ear.
"Well, then, as I was saying, he is not coming this afternoon, but he
will come this evening; and he said you were not to worry at all,
because what he was talking to you about yesterday--whatever that
is!--is all arranged."

All arranged! It came as a sudden shock. Marie-Louise turned her head
quickly away, and, with her back to Madame Garneau, stood looking out
of the window. All arranged! Then what should she do-