“But two months passed and three months, and Jacqueline did not hear a word from little Emile’s mother. She said to herself, that when the five months had passed, the lady would undoubtedly come to see her son and bring her more money. But no! the five months passed, and no one came. Meanwhile the poor nurse had become a widow and had lost her own child. As she needed money, she decided to go to Paris. She got somebody to read to her the address the baroness had given her—I forgot to tell you that Jacqueline didn’t know how to read; that is an unimportant detail. What was written on the paper was: ‘La Baronne de Mortagne, at her hôtel on Rue de Grenelle, Faubourg Saint-Germain.’—On her arrival in Paris, Jacqueline inquired the way to Rue de Grenelle. I forgot to tell you that she didn’t know Paris.”
“Yes! yes! you did tell us; go on, Silvestre.”
“Well! arrived in Paris, and on Rue de Grenelle, the nurse couldn’t find the house from which she had taken her nursling. She inquired, she asked on both sides of the street for Madame la Baronne de Mortagne; no one knew that lady—it was a false address!”
“And a false baroness; we guessed that at the very beginning of your story.”
“Finding that all her inquiries were useless, Jacqueline returned to Morfontaine with the child; she was entitled to turn him over to the magistrate and not keep him any longer, but, poor as she was, the good woman would not abandon her foster-child.”
“Ah! that was very well done!”
“There was a nurse with more heart than a mother!”
“But how does it happen,” asked Thélénie in a hesitating tone, “that this nurse who lived at Morfontaine is now at Chelles?”
“Because she has a sister who lives here, the widow Tourniquoi. This sister, being in comfortable circumstances, learned that Jacqueline was almost destitute since her husband’s death, so she proposed to her to come here to live with her. Jacqueline asked nothing better; she came with the little boy, who unfortunately has grown up to be a very tough subject!”
“He probably takes after his mother,” said Freluchon.