"This poor family has been recommended to me," said Clémence, blushing; "but I was far from expecting to see it bowed down by this fresh and terrible blow. And Louise Morel—"
"Declares her innocence, and affirms her child was born dead; and it seems as if hers were accents of truth. Since your ladyship takes an interest in this family, if you would be so good as to see the poor girl, perhaps this mark of your kindness might soothe her despair, which they tell me is really alarming."
"Certainly I will see her; then I shall have two protégées instead of one, Louise Morel and La Goualeuse, for all you tell me relative to this poor girl interests me excessively. But what must be done to obtain her liberty? I will then find a situation for her. I will take care of her in future."
"With your connections, madame, it will be very easy for you to obtain her liberty the day after to-morrow, for it is at the discretion of the Prefect of Police, and the application of a person of consequence would be decisive with him. But I have wandered from the observation which I made on the slumber of La Goualeuse; and, with reference to this, I must confess that I should not be astonished if, to the deeply painful feeling of her first error, there is added some other grief no less severe."
"What mean you, madame?"
"Perhaps I am deceived; but I should not be astonished if this young girl, rescued by some circumstance from the degradation in which she was first plunged, has now some honest love, which is at the same time her happiness and her torment."
"What are your reasons for believing this?"
"The determined silence which she keeps as to where she has passed the three months which followed her departure from the Cité makes me think that she fears being discovered by the persons with whom she in all probability found a shelter."
"Why should she fear this?"
"Because then she would have to own to a previous life, of which they are no doubt ignorant."