"The servants of m'sieu left when m'sieu was taken sick."
"And you are doing their work?"
"As well as I can, m'sieu, when I can leave you. Just a little work I do, to amuse me, keep me from thinking."
Clairville trembled again and could not lift his eyes to this afflicted patient creature.
"I recollect now," he murmured, "you were always a kind woman. It was you who took the child away?"
"It was I, m'sieu."
"Eight years ago, was it not?"
"Nine, m'sieu."
"Nine, then. It was the year of the great snow. Does she—does my sister ever go to see it?"
"I cannot tell, m'sieu. She is not in St. Ignace often, and m'sieu knows that when ma'amselle goes abroad it is to Montreal and to the theatre."