“Impossible!” Claire repeated the word with emphasis.
“But it is our duty to make all the sacrifices we can. We must economise more strictly.”
“Oh, certainly, mamma,” said Félicie, cheerfully. “If you remember, in the last address which we had from the abbé, he counselled us to cast away superfluous luxuries. And here is our opportunity. It seems quite a coincidence.”
Mme. de Beaudrillart nodded, waiting for her other daughter to speak. Claire lifted her head and glanced round the room.
“I wish the coincidence had not arrived,” she said. “I am ready to do anything that is suggested; but I own I hardly see what we have which can be called superfluous.” Her mother folded her thin white hands in her lap.
“We must do with fewer servants,” she said.
“I suppose so,” Claire assented, doubtfully. “Which will you dismiss? François is the least necessary.”
“To us, but not to Léon. No; I have been reflecting, and I believe we can dispense with Rose-Marie. You are both active, and I, I thank Heaven, not yet infirm, so that between us, with old Nanon and Jacques Charpentier to help, we shall very well be able to manage the house-work.”
“Mamma,” gasped Félicie, with anguish in her voice, “I have just remembered the most terrible thing!”
“What, then?”