"What is their business?"
"They are all dead. I have no one left."
The sergeant, who was quite loquacious, continued to question her.
"Devil take it, every one has relations, or one has had them! Who are you? Speak!"
The woman listened bewildered; this "or one has had them" sounded more like the cry of a wild beast than the speech of a human being.
The vivandière felt obliged to interfere. She began to caress the nursing child, and patted the other two on the cheeks.
"What is the baby's name? It's a little girl, isn't it?"
The mother replied, "Georgette."
"And the oldest one? For he is a man, the rogue!"
"René-Jean."