Adèle did immediately as she was bid, not daring to speak when she heard her father's gruff tone.
The farm of the "Prenoms" was only half a mile distant from "Les Marches," and Adèle did the distance in ten minutes.
She gave the letter to her uncle. "You will have to wait for a reply," he said.
Her uncle was a man who never said more than was absolutely necessary.
"Seat yourself; here is a chair for you," said her aunt.
Adèle took the preferred chair, and her aunt began to question her.
"So you are going to a boarding school," she said; and Adèle felt that there was something sarcastic in her tone.
"Papa wants me to," she mumbled timidly.
"Oh, it is not so much Alfred's wish," significantly said Mrs. Soher (Adèle's aunt), as she turned towards her step-mother who was seated on a "jonquière," engaged in mending a pair of stockings.