nly twelve year old then. When M'sieu' Hadrian leave, he
give her two seats for the theatre, and we go. Bagosh! that is grand
thing that play, and M'sieu' Hadrian, he is a prince; and when he say to
his minister, 'But no, my lord, I will marry out of my star, and where
my heart go, not as the State wills,' he look down at P'tite Louison,
and she go all red, and some of the women look at her, and there is a
whisper all roun'.

"Nex' day he come to the house where we stay, but the Cure come also
pretty soon and tell her she must go home--he say an actor is not good
company. Never mind. And so we come out home. Well, what you think?
Nex' day M'sieu' Hadrian come, too, and we have dam good time--Florian,
Octave, Felix, Emile, they all sit and say bully-good to him all the
time. Holy, what fine stories he tell! And he talk about P'tite Louison,
and his eyes get wet, and Emile he say his prayers to him--bagosh! yes,
I think. Well, at last, what you guess? M'sieu' he come and come, and at
last one day, he say that he leave Montreal and go to New York, where he
get a good place in a big theatre--his time in Montreal is finish. So
he speak to Florian and say he want marry P'tite Louison, and he say, of
course, that he is not marry and he have money. But he is a Protestan',
and the Cure at first ver' mad, bagosh!

"But at las' when he give a hunder' dollars to the Church, the Cure
say yes. All happy that way for while. P'tite Louison, she get ready
quick-sapre, what fine things had she--and it is all to be done in a
week, while the theatre in New York wait for M'sieu'. He sit there with
us, and play on the fiddle, and sing songs, and act plays, and help
Florian in the barn, and Octave to mend the fence, and the Cure to
fix the grape-vines on his wall. He show me and Emile how to play
sword-sticks; and he pick flowers and fetch them to P'tite Louison, and
teach her how to make an omelette and a salad like the chef of the Louis
Quinze Hotel, so he say. Bagosh, what a good time we have! But first
one, then another, he get a choke-throat when he think that P'tite
Louison go to leave us, and the more we try, the more we are bagosh
fools. And that P'tite Louison, she kiss us hevery one, and say to
M'sieu' Hadrian, 'Charles, I love you, but I cannot go.' He laugh at
her, and say, 'Voila! we will take them all with us:' and P'tite Louison
she laugh. That night a thing happen. The Cure come, and he look ver'
mad, and he frown and he say