Mathieu's sudden entry made her start, however, and when she recognized
him she smiled faintly in an embarrassed way.
"It's done," he simply said.
She did not immediately reply, but wiped her fingers on her handkerchief.
However, it was necessary that she should say something, and so she
began: "You did not tell me you would come back--I was not expecting you.
Well, it's done, and it's all for the best. I assure you there was no
means of doing otherwise."
Then she spoke of her departure, asked the young man if he thought she
might regain admittance to the works, and declared that in any case she
should go there to see if the master would have the audacity to turn her
away. Thus she continued while the minutes went slowly by. The
conversation had dropped, Mathieu scarcely replying to her, when La
Couteau, carrying the other child in her arms, at last darted in like a
gust of wind. "Let's make haste, let's make haste!" she cried. "They
never end with their figures; they try all they can to leave me without a
copper for myself!"
But Norine detained her, asking: "Oh! is that Rosine's baby? Pray do show
it me." Then she uncovered the infant's face, and exclaimed: "Oh! how
plump and pretty he is!" And she began another sentence: "What a pity!
Can one have the heart--" But then she remembered, paused, and changed
her words: "Yes, how heartrending it is when one has to forsake such
little angels.
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