Then she had obtained scholastic assistance for him, not to
mention frequent presents which she brought--clothes, linen, and even
money--for apart from official matters, charitable people often intrusted
her with fairly large sums, which she distributed among the most
meritorious of the poor mothers whom she visited. And even nowadays she
occasionally called on the sisters, well pleased to spend an hour in that
nook of quiet toil, which the laughter and the play of the child
enlivened. She there felt herself to be far away from the world, and
suffered less from her own misfortunes. And Norine kissed her hands,
declaring that without her the little household of the two mothers would
never have managed to exist.
When Mathieu appeared there, cries of delight arose. He also was a
friend, a saviour--the one who, by first taking and furnishing the large
room, had founded the household. It was a very clean room, almost
coquettish with its white curtains, and rendered very cheerful by its two
large windows, which admitted the golden radiance of the afternoon sun.
Norine and Cecile were working at the table, cutting out cardboard and
pasting it together, while the little one, who had come home from school,
sat between them on a high chair, gravely handling a pair of scissors and
fully persuaded that he was helping them.
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