DOCTOR. They say that’s what they are.
GIRL. Oh, I can see well enough. Besides, a whole lot of ’em have orders on. That makes me laugh, too. When they meet you, they’ve got their little bits of ribbon stuck in their buttonhole. Then they follow you and they haven’t anything. I wanted to find out, so I looked over my shoulder in a glass and saw my man snap the ribbon out with his finger and thumb just as you do when you’re shelling peas. You know?
DOCTOR. Yes, I know. Tell us about your child. What became of it?
GIRL. Oh, I left it at that place in the Rue Denfer.
DOCTOR [to Loches] The foundlings’ hospital.
LOCHES. Did you not mind doing that?
GIRL. It was better than dragging it about with me to starve.
LOCHES. Still, it was your child.
GIRL. Well, what about its father? It was his child, too, wasn’t it? See here, I’m not going to talk about that again. Anyway, just tell me what I could have done, you two there. Put it out to nurse? Well, of course, I would have, if I’d been sure of having the money for it. But then I wanted to get another place; and how was I to pay for nursing it with the twentyfive or thirty francs a month I should have got, eh? If I wanted to keep straight, I couldn’t keep the kid. See?
LOCHES. It’s too horrible.