“You have quite recovered,” said the doctor, extending his hand to the young girl. “I am very glad to see it; but, for fear of relapse, you must remain under my eye for some days to come. Everything has been arranged, and from this time till your departure you will return no more to the fourth story.”
“What can I say, monsieur? You are both so kind, and I love you so much that I accept alms from your hands without shame and almost without pain.”
“I forbid you making use of so shocking a word,” said Mademoiselle Josephine.
“Yet it is really alms,” said Fleurange in a sad but firm tone, “for I have nothing of my own, and if in want of a piece of bread to-day, I should have to extend the hand of a beggar.”
“Come, come! you are not reduced to that yet, thank God! But let us drop this, and speak of something more important. You must answer your uncle’s letter without delay.”
“Yes, indeed,” said Fleurange. And after a short silence, she added: “I am going to ask him to be kind enough to receive me for a month.”
“But from his letter, he seems disposed to offer you a much more extended hospitality than that.”
“Perhaps so, but I am only willing to accept it till I have found the means of living without being a burden on him.”
“What is your intention, then?”
“I do not know,” said Fleurange; “but there are many means of gaining a, livelihood, are there not? Well, I shall endeavor to find one not beyond my strength.”