"To take us back with you?" exclaimed Nadine. "What do you mean, my dear constable?"
"Just what I say," the old man responded, smiling upon her. "It is the order of Madame Pradère. She has sent me for you."
"Madame Pradère!" echoed Nadine, her own countenance brightening at the mention of the name. "Our kind benefactress! Does she really want us to go to her?"
"To be sure!" returned the constable, who evidently enjoyed his mission. "You don't know how sorely she has been bereaved since you were at Morainville."
"Yes—I do," replied Nadine, softly, her eyes filling with tears. "She lost her husband by a dreadful accident."
"Ah! She has changed greatly since then," the constable went on. "Her hair has become almost white. There was a time when they feared for her reason."
"The poor lady!" murmured Nadine. "How she must have suffered!"
"Yes—ah yes!" sighed the constable. "And she wants to be comforted in her loneliness. She has neither husband nor children now, and so she sent me off to find you, and bring you back. She has resolved to take care of you for the future."
Nadine and Cæsar looked at one another in bewilderment. What could the constable mean? If they did not know how good and kind he was they might have thought he was out of his senses. Madame Pradère to adopt them! Surely it was too good to be true!