Then Marianne, anxious at seeing the conversation drop, began,
questioning Valentine, while Gervais at last slyly crept to her knees.
"Why did you not bring your little Andree?" she inquired. "I should have
been so pleased to kiss her. And she would have been able to play with
this little gentleman, who, you see, does not leave me a moment's peace."
But Seguin did not give his wife time to reply. "Ah! no, indeed!" he
exclaimed; "in that case I should not have come. It is quite enough to
have to drag the two others about. That fearful child has not ceased
deafening us ever since her nurse went away."
Valentine then explained that Andree was not really well behaved. She had
been weaned at the beginning of the previous week, and La Catiche, after
terrorizing the household for more than a year, had plunged it by her
departure into anarchy. Ah! that Catiche, she might compliment herself on
all the money she had cost! Sent away almost by force, like a queen who
is bound to abdicate at last, she had been loaded with presents for
herself and her husband, and her little girl at the village! And now it
had been of little use to take a dry-nurse in her place, for Andree did
not cease shrieking from morning till night.
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