"And why not, my child?"
"Oh! see, he has such a bad look."
"Because you fancy so, because he is in rags, and appears to be ill. Look at me, Mélanie; just imagine, if I were covered with rags, and had been laid up with fever for a week, do you think I should look very well?"
"Oh! dear grandmamma!"
"He is old; I too am old; and whereas I take my granddaughter out to walk for her pleasure, he, on the contrary, takes his out to beg for her bread."
"Do you think so, grandmamma?"
"It is at least possible, my dear; and as we know nothing to the contrary, we have no right to regard as dishonest a man who may be quite the reverse, and who has so much need of our good opinion."
Mélanie carried to the poor man a sou which Madame d'Inville had given her, and, touched by her grandmamma's words, she added another from her own store.