"Oh, my dears," said their mother, "no Saint Cloud for this day. I am still trembling with the fright you have caused me. It is already late, and your papa is still seeking for you. If you had not ventured out alone, and without my permission, you would neither have been splashed nor lost, and we should now have been on our way to Saint Cloud; it is right you should be punished for your fault; go then and change your clothes."
Paul was very much disposed to cry and pout; but Louisa, feeling the justice of her mother's words, took his hand, and left the room with him, followed by her nurse.
Their mother remained with Madame Croque-Mitaine. "These poor children were very much afraid of me, madame," said the old woman. "They would scarcely go with me, and I had great difficulty in inducing them to enter my hovel."
"How much I am indebted to you!" replied the mother. "Had it not been for you, they would not now be here, and God only knows what might have happened to them. Oh, how much I owe you!"
"Oh, nothing at all, madame; if my daughter had lost herself, and you had chanced to find her, you would have done as much for her."
"Have you a daughter, my good woman?"
"Yes, one twelve years old, may it please you, madame; Charlotte is very pretty, though I say so."
Louisa returned at this moment.
"Louisa," asked her mother, "did you see little Charlotte?"