Her eyes were quite moist, all smiles and
tears.
"You must not think me a bad daughter, monsieur," said she, "because I'm
so pleased to leave home. Papa still works as much as he is able, though
he does not get much reward for it at the factory. And mamma does all she
can at home, though she hasn't much strength left her nowadays. Since
Victor came back from the army, he has married and has children of his
own, and I'm even afraid that he'll have more than he can provide for,
as, while he was in the army, he seems to have lost all taste for work.
But the sharpest of the family is that lazy-bones Irma, my younger
sister, who's so pretty and so delicate-looking, perhaps because she's
always ill. As you may remember, mamma used to fear that Irma might turn
out badly like Norine. Well, not at all! Indeed, she's the only one of us
who is likely to do well, for she's going to marry a clerk in the
post-office. And so the only ones left at home are myself and Alfred. Oh!
he is a perfect bandit! That is the plain truth. He committed a theft the
other day, and one had no end of trouble to get him out of the hands of
the police commissary.
Pages:
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383