with hers.

The doctor rose and moved about the room, unable any longer to control
his distress. "Oh, the poor people!" he murmured to himself. "The poor,
poor people!"

The storm passed, and Madame Dupont, who was a woman of strong
character, got herself together. Facing the doctor again, she said,
"Come, sir, tell us what we have to do."

"You must stop the nursing, and keep the woman here as a dry nurse, in
order that she may not go away to carry the disease elsewhere. Do not
exaggerate to yourself the danger which will result to the child. I am,
in truth, extremely moved by your suffering, and I will do everything--I
swear it to you--that your baby may recover as quickly as possible its
perfect health. I hope to succeed, and that soon. And now I must leave
you until tomorrow."

"Thank you, Doctor, thank you," said Madame Dupont, faintly.

The young man rose and accompanied the doctor to the door. He could not
bring himself to speak, but stood hanging his head until the other was
gone. Then he came to his mother. He sought to embrace her, but she
repelled him--without violence, but firmly.

Her son stepped back and put his hands over his face. "Forgive me!" he
said, in a broken voice. "Are we not unhappy enough, without hating each
other?"

His mother answered: "God has punished you for your debauch by striking
at your child."

But, grief-stricken as the young man was, he could not believe that.
"Impossible!" he said. "There is not even a man sufficiently wicked or
unjust to commit the act which you attribute to your God!"

"Yes," said his mother, sadly, "you believe in nothing."

"I believe in no such God as that," he answered.

A silence followed. When it was broken, it was by the entrance of the
nurse. She had opened the door of the room and had been standing there
for some moments, unheeded. Finally she stepped forward. "Madame," she
said, "I have thought it over; I would rather go back to my home at
once, and have only the five hundred francs."

Madame Dupont stared at her in consternation. "What is that you are
saying? You want to return to your home?"

"Yes, ma'am," was the answer.

"But," cried George, "only ten minutes ago you were not thinking of it."

"What has happened since then?" demanded Madame Dupont.

"I have thought it over."

"Thought it over?"

"Well, I am getting lonesome for my little one and for my husband."

"In the last ten minutes?" exclaimed George.

"There must be