"His wife! ah! monsieur, my protector loves me as his daughter; but he has often told me that my parents were dead."
"Was it he who placed you with the peasants?"
"Yes, monsieur. At first he came to see me very seldom, then he came oftener. When I was very small he used to take me in his arms, and kiss me and play with me. Then, when I grew up, he used to make me talk; then he taught me to read and to write, and to speak differently. He said that I learned quickly, and that it was a pity that I should be ignorant, like the people of the mountains."
"And then?"
"That is all, monsieur."
"He did not tell you that some day he would take you into the world, that he would provide you with pleasures innumerable?"
"No, he never told me that."
"And when you knew Edouard, and loved him, did you confess that to him?"
"Yes, monsieur; oh! I concealed nothing from him."
"What did he say to you then?"