Jeanne went down to the kitchen trembling all over, to deliver her husband's message, and then afraid to go upstairs again, she went into the drawing-room, where a fire was never lighted, now her parents were away. Soon she saw Simon run out of the house, and come back five minutes after with Widow Dentu, the village midwife. Next she heard a noise on the stairs which sounded as if they were carrying a body, then Julien came to tell her that she could go back to her room. She went upstairs and sat down again before her bedroom fire, trembling as if she had just witnessed some terrible accident.
"How is she?" she asked.
Julien, apparently in a great rage, was walking about the room in a preoccupied, nervous way. He did not answer his wife for some moments, but at last he asked, stopping in his walk:
"Well, what do you mean to do with this girl?"
Jeanne looked at her husband as if she did not understand his question.
"What do you mean?" she said. "I don't know; how should I?"
"Well, anyhow, we can't keep that child in the house," he cried, angrily.
Jeanne looked very perplexed, and sat in silence for some time. At last she said:
"But, my dear, we could put it out to nurse somewhere?"
He hardly let her finish her sentence.