"
"Very good, that will suit me well, for I am rather in a hurry."
Once outside, Mathieu resolved that he would try no ruses with her. The
best course was to tell her plainly what he wanted, and then to buy her
silence. At the first words he spoke she understood him. She well
remembered Norine's child, although in her time she had carried dozens of
children to the Foundling Hospital. The particular circumstances of that
case, however, the conversation which had taken place, her drive with
Mathieu in a cab, had all remained engraved on her memory. Moreover, she
had found that child again, at Rougemont, five days later; and she even
remembered that her friend the hospital-attendant had left it with La
Loiseau. But she had occupied herself no more about it afterwards; and
she believed that it was now dead, like so many others. When she heard
Mathieu speak of the hamlet of Saint-Pierre, of Montoir the wheelwright,
and of Alexandre-Honore, now fifteen, who must be in apprenticeship
there, she evinced great surprise.
"Oh, you must be mistaken, monsieur," she said; "I know Montoir at
Saint-Pierre very well. And he certainly has a lad from the Foundling, of
the age you mention, at his place.
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