"Good-night," said Jacob, taking his hat.
"Good-night."
CHAPTER XXI.
[LIA.]
Jacob sought for two days the place where Lia had concealed herself. He at last obtained some information about her, and found that the poor girl's misery was horrible, but that she had endured it uncomplainingly and with angelic patience. She lived in the rue des Jardins, called thus because of the gardens which formerly abounded there, most of which had long since disappeared. The house was old and in bad repair, but it still possessed a small garden planted with fruit-trees. Under the shadow of the apple and pear trees grew beets, carrots, potatoes, and onions, also strawberries and raspberry bushes. In the centre rose a magnificent linden-tree, the pride of the proprietor. This tree gave shade, as well as some profit from its flowers and its bees. In many places the old and ruined house was propped up to keep it from falling, and the shingles on the roof were covered with a thick moss. In the lower part lived Jewish families blessed with many children; Lia lived on the floor above.
At the door Jacob met the landlady. She was very fat, and muffled up in an apron of foulard, on which the portrait of Napoleon I. was printed. At his first question regarding the lodger he sought, she looked at him suspiciously, and replied:--
"The woman for whom you ask lives here, but she receives no one. If, however, monsieur, your business is important"--
"Yes; I come on business."
"In that case you will find her in her room. She occasionally comes down to the garden, and sits under the shade of our linden. She has no right to the garden, but she is a poor girl, sweet and quiet. I pity her. Do you know her, monsieur?"
"Very little, hardly at all; but I have been sent by the family," said Jacob, somewhat embarrassed.