But she had too much sense to betray any indiscreet curiosity. Seating herself upon the chair the mistress of the house indicated, she made haste to express her gratitude.
"You are very kind, Madame, very kind indeed," she murmured.
"Not at all, my child, not at all," was the response. "But now tell me, you seek permission from the Mayor to stay here a while in order to sell some little articles I presume?"
"No, Madame. We have nothing to sell," replied Nadine, gaining courage from the good lady's gentle manner. "We are only strolling performers who give public representations with our animals."
"Oh! ho! you have animals! Trained dogs, I suppose, and that sort of thing," and Madame's comely countenance expressed an amused interest.
"We have only one dog, Vigilant, who is very comical. He knows how to make the most morose people laugh when he plays his part with Nalla." Nadine's eyes brightened at the thought of her dog.
"Nalla! and pray who is Nalla?"
"Madame," answered Nadine, her face growing serious again, "Nalla is our breadwinner. He is the chief attraction of our troupe, for you can easily understand that such mere children as we are daren't pretend to be of much account as performers. In us by ourselves the public would take very little interest, and we couldn't get along at all. But when we exhibit Nalla in all the streets, and make our announcements from his back, curiosity is aroused, and the people come in the evening to see our big creature's performance."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Madame Pradère, looking puzzled. "Your big creature! Is not Nalla, then, a dog like Vigilant?"