atmosphere was a trifle heavy and the sky dark.

When they reached the village it was all quiet. All seemed to sleep. Not
a light shone from the windows.

The dark night made no difference to the blind man. As they walked along
the road from the chateau he knew exactly where he was.

"We must be nearing Francoise's house," he said, after they had walked a
little distance.

"That is just where we are going," said Perrine. "We are there now. Let
me take your hand and guide you, and please don't speak. We have some
stairs to go up, but they are quite easy and straight. When we get to
the top of these stairs I shall open a door and we shall go into a room
for just one moment."

"What do you want me to see ... when I can't see anything?" he said.

"There will be no need for you to see," replied Perrine.

"Then why come?"

"I want you here," said Perrine earnestly. "Here are the stairs. Now
step up, please."

They climbed up the stairs and Perrine opened a door and gently drew M.
Vulfran inside a room and closed the door again.

They stood in a suffocating, evil-smelling room.

"Who is there?" asked a weary voice.

Pressing his hand, Perrine warned M. Vulfran not to speak.

The same voice spoke:

"Get into bed, La Noyelle. How late you are."

This time M. Vulfran clasped Perrine's hand in a sign for them to leave
the place.

She opened the door and they went down, while a murmur of voices
accompanied them. When they reached the street M. Vulfran spoke: "You
wanted me to know what that room was the first night when you slept
there?"

"I wanted you to know what kind of a place all the women who work for
you have to sleep in. They are all alike in Maraucourt and the other
villages. You have stood in one of these dreadful rooms; all the others
are like it. Think of your women and children, your factory hands, who
are breathing that poisoned air. They are slowly dying. They are almost
all weak and sick."

M. Vulfran was silent. He did not speak again, neither did Perrine. When
they entered the hall he bade her good night, and guided by Bastien, he
went to his own room.

CHAPTER XXX

GRANDFATHER FINDS PERRINE

One year had passed since Perrine had arrived at Maraucourt on that
radiant Sunday morning. What a miserable lonely little girl she had been
then.

The day was just as radiant now, but what a change in Perrine, and, be
it said, in the whole village also. She was now a lovely girl of
fift