第227章

"The soldier, who brought these orphans to France, the father of M.

Agricola, is still in town?"

"Yes, madame.Oh! if you only knew his fury, his despair, when, on his return home, he no longer found the children that a dying mother had confided to him!"

"He must take care not to act with the least violence.It would ruin all.Take this ring," said Adrienne, drawing it from her finger, "and give it to him.He must go instantly--are you sure that you can remember a name and address?"

"Oh! yes, madame.Be satisfied on that point.Agricola only mentioned your name once, and I have not forgotten it.There is a memory of the heart."

"I perceive it, my dear girl.Remember, then, the name of the Count de Montbron."

"The Count de Montbron--I shall not forget."

"He is one of my good old friends, and lives on the Place Vendome, No.

7."

"Place Vendome, No.7--I shall remember."

"M.Agricola's father must go to him this evening, and, if he is not at home, wait for his coming in.He must ask to speak to him, as if from me, and send him this ring as a proof of what he says.Once with him, he must tell him all--the abduction of the girls, the name of the convent where they are confined, and my own detention as a lunatic in the asylum of Dr.Baleinier.Truth has an accent of its own, which M.de Montbron will recognize.He is a man of much experience and judgment, and possessed of great influence.He will immediately take the necessary steps, and to-morrow, or the day after, these poor orphans and myself will be restored to liberty--all thanks to you! But moments are precious; we might be discovered; make haste, dear child!"

At the moment of drawing back, Adrienne said to Mother Bunch, with so sweet a smile and affectionate a tone, that it was impossible not to believe her sincere: "M.Agricola told me that I had a heart like yours.

I now understand how honorable, how flattering those words were for me.

Pray, give me your hand!" added Mdlle.de Cardoville, whose eyes were filling with tears; and, passing her beautiful hand through an opening in the fence, she offered it to the other.The words and the gesture of the fair patrician were full of so much real cordiality, that the sempstress, with no false shame, placed tremblingly her own poor thin hand in Adrienne's, while the latter, with a feeling of pious respect, lifted it spontaneously to her lips, and said: "Since I cannot embrace you as my sister, let me at least kiss this hand, ennobled by labor!"

Suddenly, footsteps were heard in the garden of Dr.Baleinier; Adrienne withdrew abruptly, and disappeared behind some trees, saying: "Courage, memory, and hope!"

All this had passed so rapidly that the young workwoman had no time to speak or move; tears, sweet tears, flowed abundantly down her pale cheeks.For a young lady, like Adrienne de Cardoville, to treat her as a sister, to kiss her hand, to tell her that she was proud to resemble her in heart--her, a poor creature, vegetating in the lowest abyss of misery-

-was to show a spirit of fraternal equality, divine, as the gospel words.

There are words and impressions which make a noble soul forget years of suffering, and which, as by a sudden flash, reveal to it something of its own worth and grandeur.Thus it was with the hunchback.Thanks to this generous speech, she was for a moment conscious of her own value.And though this feeling was rapid as it was ineffable, she clasped her hands and raised her eyes to heaven with an expression of fervent gratitude;

for, if the poor sempstress did not practise, to use the jargon of ultramontane cant, no one was more richly endowed with that deep religious sentiment, which is to mere dogmas what the immensity of the starry heaven is to the vaulted roof of a church.

Five minutes after quitting Mdlle.de Cardoville, Mother Bunch, having left the garden without being perceived, reascended to the first story, and knocked gently at the door of the press-room.A sister came to open the door to her.

"Is not Mdlle.Florine, with whom I came, still here, sister?" asked the needlewoman.

"She could not wait for you any longer.No doubt, you have come from our mother the superior?"

"Yes, yes, sister," answered the sempstress, casting down her eyes;

"would you have the goodness to show me the way out?"

"Come with me."

The sewing-girl followed the nun, trembling at every step lest she should meet the superior, who would naturally have inquired the cause of her long stay in the convent.

At length the inner gate closed upon Mother Bunch.Passing rapidly across the vast court-yard and approaching the porter's lodge, to ask him to let her out, she heard these words pronounced in a gruff voice: "It seems, old Jerome, that we are to be doubly on our guard to-night.Well, I shall put two extra balls in my gun.The superior says we are to make two rounds instead of one."

"I want no gun, Nicholas," said the other voice; "I have my sharp scythe, a true gardener's weapon--and none the worse for that."

Feeling an involuntary uneasiness at these words, which she had heard by mere chance, Mother Bunch approached the porter's lodge, and asked him to open the outer gate.

"Where do you come from?" challenged the porter, leaning half way out of his lodge, with a double barrelled gun, which he was occupied in loading, in his hand, and at the same time examining the sempstress with a suspicious air.

"I come from speaking to the superior," answered Mother Bunch timidly.

"Is that true?" said Nicholas roughly."You look like a sanctified scarecrow.Never mind.Make haste and cut!"

The gate opened, and Mother Bunch went out.Hardly had she gone a few steps in the sweet, when, to her great surprise, she saw the dog Spoil-

sport run up to her, and his master, Dagobert, a little way behind him, arriving also with precipitation.She was hastening to meet the soldier, when a full, sonorous voice exclaimed from a little distance: "Oh my good sister!" which caused the girl to turn round.From the opposite side to that whence Dagobert was coming, she saw Agricola hurrying towards the spot.