"Well, the gendarmes."
"The gendarmes?"
"No; you could never have been guilty, madame! Never! Whatever it was they charged you with——"
"Charged? Sainte Marie be praised, I never committed any crime in my life,—unless it was a crime to be thoughtless and happy."
"I was sure of that!" cried Fouchette, much relieved nevertheless.
"Why, I never was charged with any!" protested the astonished Sister Agnes.
"Then they imprisoned you without trial, as they have me. Ah! mon Dieu! madame, I see it all now! And forty years! Oh!"
"Well, blessed be the saints in heaven!" exclaimed the enlightened religieuse. "What do you think this place is, Fouchette?"
"It is"—she hesitated and changed the form of speech—"is it a—a prison?"
"Why, no! Holy Mother, no!—not a prison, child! You thought it——"