“Oh, no! I won’t lie, madame; my protectress always told me that that was a very wicked habit.”
“Ah! my girl, anyone can see that you are young! If you pass your life without lying, you’ll be a famous phenomenon, and they’ll exhibit you later for two sous. However, that’s your business. You can do as you choose.”
Violette went to see the lady who was looking for a young nursemaid. Her first question, as she looked at Violette, was:
“How old are you?”
And when the girl told her the truth, she dismissed her, saying:
“Why, you are much too young! You are only a child yourself; how do you expect me to give you my children to take care of?”
“Oh! I am very prudent, very sensible for my age, madame; inquire at number thirty-two; and then you can give me whatever you please, madame, I don’t care; so long as I can live without begging, that is all I ask.”
These last words caused the lady to reflect, for there are people who calculate closely on every subject, even when the welfare of their children is concerned; such people are ordinarily the ones who consider it very hard that dogs are ordered to be muzzled. She called Violette back and said:
“Come again to-morrow; I will make inquiries at the house you mention.”
The next day Violette became nursemaid, with a hundred francs a year. That sum seemed enormous to the child, who would have taken the place for nothing if it had been suggested to her. And as her mistress lived on Rue de Bondy, she took the two little girls of three or four years to walk every day on the Boulevard, near the Château d’Eau. When it was the day for the flower market, Violette never failed to take the children there, and then she was very happy, for she adored flowers, and even if she had not the means to buy any, on that day she could see them and gaze at them at her leisure.