brother's eyes--"

"I will pay a year in advance," observed the doctor.

"Bless me! say two years, and I'll leave her with you, for she'll be
better off with you than with us; my wife beats her, she can't abide
her. There's none but I to stand up for her, and the little saint of a
creature is as innocent as a new-born babe."

When he heard the last part of this speech, the doctor, struck by the
word "innocent," made a sign to the uncle and took him out into the
courtyard and from thence to the garden; leaving the Rabouilleuse at
the table with Fanchette and Jean-Jacques, who immediately questioned
her, and to whom she naively related her meeting with the doctor.

"There now, my little darling, good-by," said Uncle Brazier, coming
back and kissing Flore on the forehead; "you can well say I've made
your happiness by leaving you with this kind and worthy father of the
poor; you must obey him as you would me. Be a good girl, and behave
nicely, and do everything he tells you."

"Get the room over mine ready," said the doctor to Fanchette. "Little
Flore--I am sure she is worthy of the name--will sleep there in
future. To-morrow, we'll send for a shoemaker and a dressmaker. Put
another plate on the table; she shall keep us company."

That evening, all Issoudun could talk of nothing else than the sudden
appearance of the little "rabouilleuse" in Doctor Rouget's house. In
that region of satire the nickname stuck to Mademoiselle Brazier
before, during, and after the period of her good fortune.

The doctor no doubt intended to do with Flore Brazier, in a small way,
what Louis XV. did in a large one with Mademoiselle de Romans; but he
was too late about it; Louis XV. was still young, whereas the doctor
was in the flower of old age. From twelve to fourteen, the charming
little Rabouilleuse lived a life of unmixed happiness. Always
well-dressed, and often much better tricked out than the richest girls
in Issoudun, she sported a gold watch and jewels, given by the doctor to
encourage her studies, and she had a master who taught her to read,
write, and cipher. But the almost animal life of the true peasant had
instilled into Flore such deep repugnance to the bitter cup of
knowledge, that the doctor stopped her education at that point. His
intentions with regard to the child, whom he cleansed and clothed, and
taught, and formed with a care which was all the more remarkable
because he was thought to be utterly devoid of tendernes