“When, when do we go?” asked Lucie eagerly.
“As soon as I learn some things that must be learned,” responded Paulette oracularly. “In the meantime we prepare. You will not be triste, you, to go?”
“I shall regret nothing but leaving Odette.”
“There is nothing to regret there,” said Paulette serenely, “for she goes with us.”
Odette sprang to her feet and threw her arms around Paulette. “I? It is I, Odette Moreau, that you mean? I do not then work in the munition factory among strangers, but I shall be with you, madame, and my Lucie?”
“Why not?” returned Paulette. “Have you so many relatives that you cannot go with us? I have settled it all with this Henriette Jacquet, the stupid.” She did not explain why this epithet, but Odette had reason to believe that Henriette had not favored the arrangement, and that her objections were based upon a possible expense to herself.
Lucie settled herself comfortably on the arm of Paulette’s chair. “Now tell us all about it,” she said. “You love to be mysterious, Paulette, but this is no time for mysteries. Neither Odette nor I are in any frame of mind to be tantalized. Just go ahead and tell us as much as you know.”
Taken in this way Paulette was disposed to be communicative. “I have told you that all is not ready, but so much is true that we adopt Odette into the family. I have spoken to Mathilde. This Henriette goes. We open the door leading from our rooms into hers. The rooms are taken by the month, and the month is not up. We become one establishment in this manner. By the end of the month we learn where we shall go, and the rooms are given up.” This was quite a satisfactory report, although Paulette did keep back the fact that Henriette was ready to go at once, because Paulette had made it possible by paying the difference in the rent from the present date to the end of the month.
So poor, old, worn, cross-grained Amelie Durand passed into forgetfulness, and Henriette was not long in making her exit, leaving no memories which in any way affected the lives of her associates in Paris.
Neither Lucie nor Odette had known such happy days in Paris as the next few weeks brought them. In the first place preparations included the buying of new clothes, in which task Miss Lowndes offered to take a hand, and which meant several visits to the big shops which neither girl had ever seen. Paulette, too, turned to the American girl for advice, and because her vision was clearer and her outlook broader she was able to suggest things which had not occurred to the peasant woman.