"My mother is blanchisseuse," the boy said, lifting a heap of pinafores from a chair. "I am desolated that she is out."
"Yes. Guillaume, will you please tell me why you were sent away from the bath-house?"
Guillaume looked uncomfortable, and moved his foot in and out of his slipper.
"Why, ma'm'selle—I was dismissed. They said it was my character, but that is quite good. I do not drink, nor lie, nor steal; my mother was always a good bringer up."
"Then was it because of helping the English lady to escape? Was it that, Guillaume?" The boy swung his slipper dexterously to and fro on his bare toes.
"It was doubtless that, ma'm'selle, for it was after the visit of the lady she belonged to that I was dismissed. My mother warned me at the time. 'It is unwise,' she said, 'for such as you to play thus.' But the little English lady looked so sad."
"I am sorry, Guillaume. I do wish it had not happened."
"So do we, ma'm'selle," said the boy simply, "for my mother, who is blanchisseuse, has lost some customers since then, too, and I cannot get anything here. To-morrow I go to St. Malo or Paramé to try—but they are much farther away. Yet we must have money to keep the little Hélène. She is so beautiful and so tender."
"Who is Hélène?" inquired Barbara; and at the question the boy's face glowed with pride and pleasure.
"I will bring her to you, ma'm'selle; she is now in the garden. She is with me while I am at home."