nne joyously. "We're going
to see the doctor at once, aren't we, mother darling?"

"No, no," Helene answered, while she hunted for her boots, stooping to
look under the bed.

They were not to be found; but she shrugged her shoulders with supreme
indifference when it occurred to her that she could very well run out
in the flimsy house-slippers she had on her feet. She was now turning
the wardrobe topsy-turvy in her search for her shawl. Jeanne crept up
to her with a coaxing air: "Then you're not going to the doctor's,
mother darling?"

"No."

"Say that you'll take me all the same. Oh! do take me; it will be such
a pleasure!"

But Helene had at last found her shawl, and she threw it over her
shoulders. Good heavens! only twelve minutes left--just time to run.
She would go--she would do something, no matter what. She would decide
on the way.

"Mamma dear, do please take me with you," said Jeanne in tones that
grew lower and more imploring.

"I cannot take you," said Helene; "I'm going to a place where children
don't go. Give me my bonnet."

Jeanne's face blanched. Her eyes grew dim, her words came with a gasp.
"Where are you going?" she asked.

The mother made no reply--she was tying the strings of her bonnet.

Then the child continued: "You always go out without me now. You went
out yesterday, you went out to-day, and you are going out again. Oh,
I'm dreadfully grieved, I'm afraid to be here all alone. I shall die
if you leave me here. Do you hear, mother darling? I shall die."

Then bursting into loud sobs, overwhelmed by a fit of grief and rage,
she clung fast to Helene's skirts.

"Come, come, leave me; be good, I'm coming back," her mother repeated.

"No, no! I won't have it!" the child exclaimed through her sobs. "Oh!
you don't love me any longer, or you would take me with you. Yes, yes,
I am sure you love other people better. Take me with you, take me with
you, or I'll stay here on the floor; you'll come back and find me on
the floor."

She wound her little arms round her mother's legs; she wept with face
buried in the folds of her dress; she clung to her and weighed upon
her to prevent her making a step forward. And still the hands of the
clock moved steadily on; it was ten minutes to three. Then Helene
thought that she would never reach the house in time, and, nearly
distracted, she wrenched Jeanne from her grasp, exclaiming: "What an
unbearable child! This is veritable tyranny! If you sob any mo