Caillette rushed forward.

"Mother!" she cried.

"Ah! you know her?" said the innkeeper. "She is very strange."

"What did she say to you?"

"She asked for bread, and ate it without a word. Then, just as she saw
you, she asked me where some village was. I never heard the name
before."

The old woman now came to meet Caillette.

"Leigoutte!" she said. "Leigoutte!"

"Leigoutte!" repeated Caillette, "that is Fanfar's village."

The old woman shook her head, she did not know the name.

"I mean Leigoutte is where Jacques came from."

"Yes--yes--Jacques. I must save Jacques and the box!"

What was going on in the impaired mind of Francoise? Fanfar's sudden
appearance had carried her memory back to the last interview she had
with Simon, when, our readers will remember, he had given his wife the
papers that proved his birth and that of Jacques. And now Francoise had
but one idea, to return to Leigoutte. In vain did Caillette urge her to
return to Paris, and the girl had promised Fanfar not to leave his
mother. She therefore went on toward Germany with her. Fortunately, a
wagoner took pity on these two women, and took them up. In this way they
reached Leigoutte. Francoise was silent, except a few low words that she
muttered under her breath at long intervals. Caillette thought with
despair of Fanfar, and his agony at his mother's disappearance.

Alas! poor girl, she did not know that the night when she and Francoise
entered the inn at Leigoutte, Fanfar, alone in his prison, thought of
his mother whom he had scarcely seen, and of the sister whom he had held
in his arms. Ah! it was a bitter trial for the strong, faithful heart.

Caillette and Pierre Labarre watched Francoise, when finally she arose
from her chair, and went toward the door. On the threshold she seemed to
hesitate. She thrust back her gray hair, and pressed her hand to her
brow. Then, as if she suddenly remembered something, she turned and went
toward the door in the back of the house, Caillette and Pierre following
her every step she took. She went out into the garden, and up a winding
path to the hill, which she began to climb with panting breath.

"Ah! she is going to the little farm of Lasvene which was burned," said
Pierre to himself.

Then, all the time watching Francoise, he began to question Caillette.

What motive had Francoise in these persistent wanderings? Was it merely
the whim of a mad woman or had she some fixed design?

Francoise