ds, which had thrown her into a state of great agitation.
She tried to recover her self-control, for it would never do to listen to
what was being said behind her when the machinists and workmen were talking
to her at the same time. What would her employer think if in giving her
explanations in French he saw that she had not been paying attention to her
task.

However, everything was explained to them in a manner satisfactory to
both sides. When she had finished, Monsieur Vulfran called to her:
"Aurelie!"

This time she took care to reply quickly to the name which in the future
was to be hers.

As on the previous day, he made her sit down beside him and gave her a
paper to translate for him into French. This time it was not the "Dundee
News," but the "Dundee Trade Report Association," which is an official
bulletin published on the commerce of jute. So without having to search for
any particular article, she read it to him from beginning to end. Then,
when the reading was over, as before, he asked her to lead him through the
grounds, but this time he began to question her about herself.

"You told me that you had lost your mother. How long ago was that?" he
asked.

"Five weeks," she replied.

"In Paris?"

"Yes, in Paris."

"And your father?"

"Father died six months before mother," she said in a low voice.

As he held her hand in his he could feel it tremble, and he knew what
anguish she felt as he evoked the memory of her dead parents, but he did
not change the subject; he gently continued to question her.

"What did your parents do?"

"We sold things," she replied.

"In Paris? Round about Paris?"

"We traveled; we had a wagon and we were sometimes in one part of the
country, sometimes in another."

"And when your mother died you left Paris?"

"Yes, sir."

"Why?"

"Because mother made me promise not to stay in Paris after she had gone,
but to go North where my father's people live."

"Then why did you come here?"

"When my mother died we had to sell our wagon and our donkey and the few
things we had, and all this money was spent during her illness. When I
left the cemetery after she was buried all the money I had was five
francs thirty-five centimes, which was not enough for me to take the
train. So I decided to make the journey on foot."

Monsieur Vulfran's fingers tightened over hers. She did not understand
this movement.

"Oh, forgive me; I am boring you," she said. "I am telling you th