if you
remain here long. Only be lively with me, be always lively and pray
aloud no more. I do not like these prayers. But why are you here?
Where are my servants--Maman Archambault, Antoine, and the rest?"

"The servants of m'sieu left when m'sieu was taken sick."

"And you are doing their work?"

"As well as I can, m'sieu, when I can leave you. Just a little work I
do, to amuse me, keep me from thinking."

Clairville trembled again and could not lift his eyes to this afflicted
patient creature.

"I recollect now," he murmured, "you were always a kind woman. It was
you who took the child away?"

"It was I, m'sieu."

"Eight years ago, was it not?"

"Nine, m'sieu."

"Nine, then. It was the year of the great snow. Does she--does my
sister ever go to see it?"

"I cannot tell, m'sieu. She is not in St. Ignace often, and m'sieu
knows that when ma'amselle goes abroad it is to Montreal and to the
theatre."

"But you--you know about it, if it lives, if it is well, and has--has
its mind?"

"It lives--yes, truly, m'sieu--it is never ill and it has its mind!"

"Mon Dieu!" muttered Henry Clairville. "_That_ has its mind and I--I
am sometimes bereft of mine. And you--you----" he pointed to madame,
and though innocent and unoffending she quailed before the seigneurial
finger. "You even--you woman there--you have not always your mind!
Oh--it is dreadful to think of it! I would be ill again and forget.
Tell me--is there, is there any resemblance? Say no, madame, say no!"

"I never go to Hawthorne, m'sieu, I cannot tell you. But I do not
think so. I have never heard. They are nearly all English in that
parish; they would not concern themselves much about that--the poor
_bebe_, the poor Angele. God made her too, m'sieu. Perhaps some day
she will be taken away by mademoiselle to a place where such children
are cared for. That is why Mademoiselle Pauline works so hard at the
theatre to make much money."

"She would need to!" burst from Henry Clairville. "What she does with
the money she makes I do not know, it never comes this way! I cannot
make money. She ought to remember me sometimes, so that I could
establish this place afresh, find new servants, for example.
Alas--what shall I do without them?"

He raised his voice and the old peevish tone rang out.

"Be tranquil, m'sieu. It is I--I myself, nursing you, who shall do all
that is required."

He sighed heavily, then a sudden fire leapt int