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, chérie, 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.”