And before he even consulted Beauchene it occurred to him to
apply at the Foundling Hospital. If, as he anticipated, the child were
dead, the affair would go no further. Fortunately enough he remembered
all the particulars: the two names, Alexandre-Honore, given to the child,
the exact date of the deposit at the hospital, indeed all the little
incidents of the day when he had driven thither with La Couteau. And when
he was received by the director of the establishment, and had explained
to him the real motives of his inquiries, at the same time giving his
name, he was surprised by the promptness and precision of the answer:
Alexandre-Honore, put out to nurse with the woman Loiseau at Rougemont,
had first kept cows, and had then tried the calling of a locksmith; but
for three months past he had been in apprenticeship with a wheelwright, a
certain Montoir, residing at Saint-Pierre, a hamlet in the vicinity of
Rougemont. Thus the lad lived; he was fifteen years old, and that was
all. Mathieu could obtain no further information respecting either his
physical health or his morality.
When Mathieu found himself in the street again, slightly dazed, he
remembered that La Couteau had told him that the child would be sent to
Rougemont.
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