e, in being
permitted to toil for a sum that would barely supply a grisette,
accustomed all her life to privations, with the coarsest necessaries.

{grisette = working-class girl}

I have little to say of the succeeding fortnight. Mad. De la
Rocheaimard gradually grew feebler, but she might still live months. No
one could tell, and Adrienne hoped she would never die. Happily, her
real wants were few; though her appetite was capricious, and her temper
querulous. Love for her grandchild, however, shone in all she said and
did, and so long as she was loved by this, the only being on earth she
had ever been taught to love herself, Adrienne would not think an
instant of the ills caused by the infirmities of age. She husbanded her
money, with the utmost frugality, and contrived to save even a few sous
daily, out of her own wages, to add to her grandmother's stock. This
she could not have done, but for the circumstance of there being so
much in the house of their early stores, to help eke out the supplies
of the moment. But, at the end of a fortnight, Adrienne found herself
reduced to her last franc, including all her own savings. Something
must be done, and that without delay, or Madame de la Rocheaimard would
be without the means of support.

By this time Adrienne had little to dispose of, except the lace. This
exquisite piece of human ingenuity had originally cost five louis d'or,
and Adrienne had once shown it to her employer, who had generously
offered to give two napoleons for it. But the lace must be kept for my
gala dress, and it was hoped that it would bring at least its original
cost when properly bestowed as an ornament on a fabric of my quality.
There was the silver thimble, and that had cost five francs. Adrienne
sent for the porter's daughter, and she went forth to dispose of this,
almost the only article of luxury that remained to her.

{louis d'or = gold coin worth 20 francs}

"Un de, ma bonne demoiselle!" exclaimed the woman to whom the thimble
was offered for sale; "this is so common an article as scarcely to
command any price. I will give thirty sous, notwithstanding."

{Un de.... = A thimble, young lady!}

Adrienne had made her calculations, as she fancied, with some attention
to the ways of the world. Bitter experience was teaching her severe
lessons, and she felt the necessity of paying more attention than had
been her wont to the practices of men. She had hoped to receive three
francs for her thi