But after all, I'm an honest woman, and I
wash my hands of it, for if I do take the cherubs over yonder I don't
nurse them. And when one's conscience is at ease one can sleep quietly.'"
"Of course," chimed in Celeste, with an air of conviction.
While they thus waxed maudlin over their malaga, there arose a horrible
red vision--a vision of that terrible Rougemont, paved with little
Parisians, the filthy, bloody village, the charnel-place of cowardly
murder, whose steeple pointed so peacefully to the skies in the midst of
the far-spreading plain.
But all at once a rush was heard in the passage, and the servant hastened
to the door to rid herself of Gaston and Lucie, who were approaching. "Be
off! I don't want you here. Your mamma has told you that you mustn't come
here."
Then she came back into the room quite furious. "That's true!" said she;
"I can do nothing but they must come to bother me. Why don't they stay a
little with the nurse?"
"Oh! by the way," interrupted La Couteau, "did you hear that Marie
Lebleu's little one is dead? She must have had a letter about it. Such a
fine child it was! But what can one expect? it's a nasty wind passing.
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