The two sprang to their feet.
Henriette dashed to balcony window. At the end of the street she saw a figure clad in beggar’s rags that she thought she knew.
“LOUISE!”
Henriette’s cry echoed down the street and impinged on the blind beggar’s brain. The outcast ran groping and stumbling forward, no longer singing, but calling “Henriette!” Her keeper, Widow Frochard, was not in sight.
The blind girl came nearer. Frochard emerged from a ginshop and tried to head her off. The Mother followed Henriette to the window. The latter encouraged Louise with little cries:
“Don’t get excited!”
“It’s all right!”
“Wait there!”
“I’ll be down in one instant!”