all in
French, as were also Monsieur's patient replies and explanations. Susan
could not understand what they said, but she could make out a good deal
by Delphine's signs and gestures. It was easy to see that she wished to
persuade her brother not to go out again, for when he took up his hat
she tried to take it away, and pointed to the bubbling saucepan and warm
slippers. Monsieur, however, cast a gently regretful glance at them,
shook his head, and presently succeeded in freeing himself from her
eager grasp; then, when his steps had ceased to sound upon the stairs,
she shrugged her shoulders and said half aloud:

"Certainly it is my brother Adolphe, who has the temper of an angel, and
the obstinacy of a pig!"

CHAPTER FOUR.

"HALF-A-CROWN."

Mademoiselle now turned her attention to her guest with many
exclamations of pity and endearment. She took off Susan's wet frock,
boots, and stockings, rubbed her cold feet and hands, and placed her,
wrapped in a large shawl in the rocking-chair close to the fire. Next
she poured something out of the saucepan into a little white basin and
knelt beside her, saying coaxingly:

"Take this, cherie, it will do you good."

It was Monsieur's soup Susan knew, prepared for his supper, and the
saucepan was so small that there could not be much left; it was as bad
as taking half his biscuit, and after having been so ungrateful to him,
she felt she could not do it.

"No, thank you," she said faintly, turning her head away from Delphine's
sharp black eyes and the steaming basin.

But Mademoiselle was a person of authority, and would not have it
disputed.

"Mais oui, mais oui," she said impatiently, taking some of the broth in
the spoon. "Take it at once, mon enfant, it will do you good."

She looked so determined that Susan, much against her own will,
submissively took the spoon and drank the soup. It tasted poor and
thin, like hot water with something bitter in it; but she finished it
all, and Mademoiselle received the empty basin with a nod of
satisfaction. Then she busied herself in examining the condition of
Susan's wet clothes, and presently hung them all to dry at a careful
distance from the hearth. Susan herself, meanwhile, leaning lazily back
in the rocking-chair, began to feel warm and comfortable again; how
delicious it was after being so cold and wet and frightened! What would
she have done without Monsieur's help? His fire had warmed her, his
broth had