Buvat had no
need to ask for a day's leave even for this.

For the first week or two, Bathilde asked constantly for her mamma; but
her friend Buvat had brought her a great many pretty playthings to
console her, so that she soon began to ask for her less frequently; and
as she had been told she had gone to join her father, she at length only
asked occasionally when they would both come back.

Buvat had put Bathilde in the best room; he kept the other for himself,
and put Nanette in the little closet.

This Nanette was a good woman, who cooked passably, and knitted and
netted splendidly. In spite of these divers talents, Buvat understood
that he and Nanette would not suffice for the education of a young girl;
and that though she might write magnificently, know her five rules, and
be able to sew and net, she would still know only half of what she
should. Buvat had looked the obligation he had undertaken full in the
face. His was one of those happy organizations which think with the
heart, and he had understood that, though she had become his ward,
Bathilde remained the child of Albert and Clarice. He resolved, then, to
give her an education conformable, not to her present situation, but to
the name she bore.

In arriving at this resolution, Buvat had reasoned, very simply, that he
owed his place to Albert, and consequently, the income of that place
belonged to Bathilde. This is how he divided his nine hundred livres a
year: four hundred and fifty for music, drawing and dancing masters;
four hundred and fifty for Bathilde's dowry.

Now, supposing that Bathilde, who was four years old, should marry at
eighteen, the interest and the capital together would amount to
something like nine or ten thousand francs. This was not much, he knew,
and was much troubled by that knowledge; but it was in vain to think, he
could not make it more.

To defray the expense of their living, lodgings, and clothing, for
himself and Bathilde, he would again begin to give writing lessons and
make copies. For this purpose he got up at five o'clock in the morning,
and went to bed at ten at night. This would be all profit; for, thanks
to this new arrangement, he would lengthen his life by two or three
hours daily. For some time these good resolutions prospered; neither
lessons nor copies were wanting; and, as two years passed before
Bathilde had finished the early education he himself undertook to give
her, he was able to add nine hundred francs