ara! For Heaven's sake approach not that vile, that abandoned young
woman! Oh, dreadful, indeed, ever to have admitted her here! But how
came Madame Georges to have her under her roof? And how could she so far
insult me as to bring her here, and allow my daughter to--This is,
indeed, disgraceful! I hardly know whether to trust the evidence of my
own senses. But Madame Georges must have been as much imposed on as
myself, or she never would have permitted such an indignity! No, no! She
is incapable of such dishonourable conduct. It would, indeed, be a
disgrace for one female so to have deceived another."

Poor Clara, terrified and almost heart-broken at this distressing scene,
could scarcely believe herself awake. It seemed as though she were under
the influence of a fearful dream. Her innocent and pure mind
comprehended not the frightful charges brought against her friend; but
she understood enough to fill her with the most poignant grief at the
unfortunate position of La Goualeuse, who stood mute, passive and
downcast, like a criminal in the presence of the judge.

"Come, come, my child," repeated Madame Dubreuil, "let us quit this
disgraceful scene." Then, turning towards Fleur-de-Marie, she said:

"As for you, worthless girl, the Almighty will punish you as you deserve
for your deceit! That my child, good and virtuous as she is, should ever
have been allowed to call you sister or friend. Her sister! You--the
very vilest of the vile! the outcast of the most depraved and lost
wretches! What hardihood, what effrontery you must have possessed, to
dare to show your face among good and honest people, when your proper
place would have been along with your bad companions in a prison!"

"Ay, ay!" cried all the labourers at once; "let her be sent off to
prison at once. She knows the murderer! Let her be made to declare who
and what he is."

"She is most likely his accomplice!"

"You see," exclaimed the widow, doubling her fist in the face of the
Goualeuse, "that my words have come true. Justice will overtake you
before you can commit other crimes."

"As for you, my good woman," said Madame Dubreuil to the milk-woman,
"far from sending you away I shall reward you for the service you have
done me in unmasking this infamous girl's real character."

"There, I told you," murmured the voices of the labourers, "our mistress
always does justice to every one!"

"Come, Clara," resumed Madame Dubreuil, "let us retire and seek Mad