difficult number to recollect."

"Thank you, madame."

"Nay, 'tis rather for me to express thanks for having had the goodness
even to think of serving a stranger like myself. But still I cannot help
saying it does surprise me to be taken notice of by a young person like
you, who most likely has never known what trouble was."

"But, my dear Madame Duport," cried Rigolette, with a winning smile,
"there is really nothing so astonishing in the affair. Since you fancy I
bear some resemblance to your daughter Catherine, why should you be
surprised at my wish to do a good action?"

"What a dear, sweet creature it is!" cried Madame Duport, with
unaffected warmth. "Well, thanks to you, I shall return home less sad
than I expected; and perhaps we may have the pleasure of meeting here
again before long, for I believe you, like me, come to this dreadful
place to visit a prisoner?"

"Yes, indeed, I do," replied Rigolette, with a sigh, which seemed to
proceed from the very bottom of her heart.

"Then farewell for the present; we shall very shortly meet again, I
hope, Mlle.--Rigolette!" said Jeanne Duport, after having referred for
the necessary information to the card she held in her hand.

"Oh, yes, I'm sure I trust so, too. Good-bye, then, till we meet again,
Madame Duport."

"Well," thought Rigolette, as she returned and reseated herself on the
bench, "at least I know this poor woman's address; and I feel quite sure
M. Rodolph will assist her directly he knows what trouble she is in, for
he always told me whenever I heard of a case of real distress to let him
know, and I am sure this is one if ever there was." And here Rigolette
suddenly changed the current of her ideas by wondering when it would be
her turn to ask to see Germain.

A few words as to the preceding scene. Unfortunately it must be
confessed that the indignation of the unhappy brother of Jeanne Duport
was quite legitimate. Yes, when he said that the law was too dear for
the poor he spoke the truth. To plead before the civil tribunals incurs
enormous expenses, impossible for workpeople to meet when they can
scarcely subsist on the wages they earn.

Ought not civil as well as criminal justice to be accessible to all?
When persons are too poor to be able to invoke the benefits of any law
which is eminently preservative and beneficial, ought not society at its
own cost to enable them to attain it out of respect for the honour and
repose of families?

But let