inner? Oh, I suppose...."

He was gasping with amazement, and for once he could not say what he did
suppose.

"You do nothing but 'suppose'," said M. Vulfran, tartly. "I may as well
tell you that for a long time I have wanted someone intelligent to be
near me, one who is discreet and whom I can trust. This young girl seems
to have these qualities. I am sure that she is intelligent, and I have
already had the proof that I can trust her."

M. Vulfran's tone was significant. Talouel could not misunderstand the
sense of his words.

"I am taking her to live with me," continued M. Vulfran, "because I know
that there are those who are trying to tempt her. She is not one to
yield, but I do not intend that she should run any risk at their hands."

These words were said with even greater significance.

"She will stay with me altogether now," continued M. Vulfran. "She will
work here in my office; during the day she will accompany me; she will
eat at my table. I shall not be so lonesome at my meals, for her chatter
will entertain me."

"I suppose she will give you all the satisfaction that you expect,"
remarked Talouel suavely.

"I suppose so also," replied his employer, very drily.

Meanwhile Perrine, leaning with her elbows on the window sill, looked
out dreamily over the beautiful garden, at the factories beyond the
village with its houses and church, the meadows in which the silvery
water glistened in the oblique rays of the setting sun; and then her
eyes turned in the opposite direction, to the woods where she had sat
down the day she had come, and where in the evening breeze she had
seemed to hear the soft voice of her mother murmuring, "I know you will
be happy."

Her dear mother had foreseen the future, and the big daisies had also
spoken true. Yes, she was beginning to be happy. She must be patient and
all would come right in time. She need not hurry matters now. There was
no poverty, no hunger or thirst, in this beautiful chateau where she had
entered so quickly.

When the factory whistle announced the closing hour she was still
standing at her window, deep in thought. The piercing whistle recalled
her from the future to the present.

Along the white roads between the fields she saw a black swarm of
workers, first a great compact mass, then gradually it grew smaller, as
they dwindled off in different directions in groups towards their homes.

Old Coco's gentle trot was soon heard on the drive, and Perrine