I die, as is probable, before you go from here, will you claim my
body? I have the same dread as the actress, and have laid aside the
small sum of money necessary to bury me."

"Oh, do not have such ideas!"

"Still promise me, all the same!"

"But let us hope the case will not happen!"

"Yes; but if it does happen--thanks to you, I shall not have the same
misery as the actress."

"Poor woman! After having been rich to come to such an end!"

"The actress is not the only one in this room who has been rich."

"Who else?"

"A young girl of about fifteen or so, brought here yesterday evening.
She was so weak that they were obliged to support her. The sister said
that the young lady and her mother were very reputable persons, who had
been ruined."

"And is her mother here, too?"

"No, the mother was too ill to be moved. The poor girl would not leave,
so they took advantage of her fainting to convey her. The proprietor of
a wretched lodging-house, for fear they should die in his rooms, made
the report at the police station. She is there--in the bed opposite
you."

"And she is fifteen? The age of my eldest girl!" And Jeanne Duport wept
bitterly.

"Pardon me," said La Lorraine, "if I have given you pain unconsciously
in speaking of your children! Are they, too, ill?"

"Alas! I do not know. What will become of them if I remain here for a
week?"

"And your husband?"

"As we are friends together, Lorraine, I will tell you my troubles, as
you have told me yours, and that will comfort me. My husband was an
excellent workman, but became dissipated, and forsook me and my
children, after having sold everything we possessed. I went to work;
some good souls aided me, and I began to get easy again, and was
bringing up my little family as well as I could, when my husband
returned with a vile creature, his mistress, and again stripped me of
everything; and so I had to begin all over again."

"Poor Jeanne! You could not help it."

"I ought to have separated myself from him in law,--but, as my brother
says, the law is too dear! I went to see my brother one day, and he gave
me three francs, which he had collected amongst the prisoners on telling
his tales. So I took courage, believing my husband would not return for
a very long time, as he had taken all he could from us. But I was
mistaken," added the poor creature, with a shudder; "there was my poor
Catherine still to take!"

"Your daughter?"

"You will hear--you wi