"Still promise me, all the same!"
"But let us hope the case will not happen!"
"Yes; but if it does happen—thanks to you, I shall not have the same misery as the actress."
"Poor woman! After having been rich to come to such an end!"
"The actress is not the only one in this room who has been rich."
"Who else?"
"A young girl of about fifteen or so, brought here yesterday evening. She was so weak that they were obliged to support her. The sister said that the young lady and her mother were very reputable persons, who had been ruined."
"And is her mother here, too?"
"No, the mother was too ill to be moved. The poor girl would not leave, so they took advantage of her fainting to convey her. The proprietor of a wretched lodging-house, for fear they should die in his rooms, made the report at the police station. She is there—in the bed opposite you."
"And she is fifteen? The age of my eldest girl!" And Jeanne Duport wept bitterly.