Then, as her companion, still silent and distant, did not
condescend to ask her the cause of her sudden gayety, she ended by saying
aloud:
"Do you know why I am laughing? If I kept you waiting a bit longer, it
was because I met a friend of mine, an attendant in the house, just as I
left the office. She's one of those who put the babies out to nurse in
the provinces.* Well, my friend told me that she was going to Rougemont
to-morrow with two other attendants, and that among others they would
certainly have with them the little fellow I had just left at the
hospital."
* There are only about 600 beds at the Hopital des Enfants
Assistes, and the majority of the children deposited there
are perforce placed out to purse in the country.--Trans.
Again did she give vent to a dry laugh which distorted her wheedling
face. And she continued: "How comical, eh? The mother wouldn't let me
take the child to Rougemont, and now it's going there just the same. Ah!
some things are bound to happen in spite of everything."
Mathieu did not answer, but an icy chill had sped through his heart. It
was true, fate pitilessly took its own course.
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