ead, and saw that she must countermand most of the
orders. Still she was human, and she was a female. She could not
altogether desert one so helpless, in a moment of such extreme
distress. She reflected on the matter for a minute or two, and opened
her mind.

"This handkerchief might sell for forty-five francs, mademoiselle," she
said, "and I will pay that much for it myself, and will charge nothing
for my services to-day. Your dear grandmother must have Christian
burial, that is certain, and poor enough will that be which is had for
two napoleons. What say you, mademoiselle--will you accept the forty
five francs, or would you prefer seeing the marchande de mode?"

"I can see no one now, Desiree. Give me the money, and do honor to the
remains of my dear, dear grandmother."

Adrienne said this with her hands resting on her lap in quiescent
despair. Her eyes were hollow and vacant, her cheeks bloodless, her
mind almost as helpless as that of an infant. Desiree laid down two
napoleons, keeping the five francs to pay for some necessaries, and
then she took me in her hands, as if to ascertain whether she had done
too much. Satisfied on this head, I was carefully replaced in the
basket, when the commissionaire went out again, on her errands,
honorably disposed to be useful. Still she did not deem it necessary to
conceal her employer's poverty, which was soon divulged to the
porteress, and by her to the bourgeois.

{bourgeois = towns-people, neighbors}

Adrienne had now the means of purchasing food, but, ignorant how much
might be demanded on behalf of the approaching ceremony, she
religiously adhered to the use of dry bread. When Desiree returned in
the evening, she told the poor girl that the convoi was arranged for
the following morning, that she had ordered all in the most economical
way, but that thirty-five francs were the lowest sou for which the
funeral could be had. Adrienne counted out the money, and then found
herself the mistress of just FOUR FRANCS TEN SOUS. When Desiree took
her leave for the night, she placed me in her basket, and carried me to
her own lodgings, in virtue of her purchase.

{convoi = funeral; lowest sou = cheapest price}

I was laid upon a table where I could look through an open window, up
at the void of heaven. It was glittering with those bright stars which
the astronomers tell us are suns of other systems, and the scene
gradually drew me to reflections on that eternity which is before