ine. Whenever the men want to ask the boss, Monsieur Vulfran
Paindavoine, for anything, they get my grandmother to ask for them."

"Does she always get what they want?"

"Sometimes yes, sometimes no; Monsieur Vulfran ain't always obliging."

"If your grandmother was nurse to Monsieur Edmond why doesn't she ask
him?"

"M. Edmond? he's the boss' son, and he went away from here before I was
born, no one's seen him since. He had a quarrel with his father, and his
father sent him to India to buy jute. The boss has made his fortune out
of jute. He's rich, as rich as...."

She could not think how rich M. Vulfran was so she said abruptly: "Now
shall we change arms?"

"If you like. What is your name?"

"Rosalie. What's yours?"

Perrine did not want to give her real name, so she chanced on one.

"Aurelie," she said.

They rested for a while, then went on again at their regular step.

"You say that the son had a quarrel with his father," said Perrine,
"then went away?"

"Yes, and the old gentleman got madder still with him 'cause he married
a Hindu girl, and a marriage like that doesn't count. His father wanted
him to marry a young lady who came of a very fine family, the best in
Picardy. It was because he wanted his son to marry this other girl that
he built the beautiful mansion he's got. It cost millions and millions
of francs. But M. Edmond wouldn't part with the wife he's got over there
to take up with the young lady here, so the quarrel got worse and worse,
and now they don't even know if the son is dead or alive. They haven't
had news of him for years, so they say. Monsieur Vulfran doesn't speak
to anyone about it, neither do the two nephews."

"Oh, he has nephews?"

"Yes, Monsieur Theodore Paindavoine, his brother's son, and Monsieur
Casimir Bretoneux, his sister's son, who help him in the business. If M.
Edmond doesn't come back the fortune and all the factories will go to
his two nephews."

"Oh, really!"

"Yes, and that'll be a sad thing, sad for the whole town. Them nephews
ain't no good for the business ... and so many people have to get their
living from it. Sure, it'll be a sad day when they get it, and they will
if poor M. Edmond doesn't come back. On Sundays, when I serve the meals,
I hear all sorts of things."

"About his nephews?"

"Yes, about them two and others also. But it's none of our business;
let's talk of something else."

"Yes, why not?"

As Perrine did not want to appear too i