the little door of which M. Zola speaks.--Trans.

When La Couteau at last reappeared with empty arms she said never a
word, and Mathieu put no question to her. Still in silence, they took
their seats in the cab; and only some ten minutes afterwards, when the
vehicle was already rolling through bustling, populous streets, did the
woman begin to laugh. Then, as her companion, still silent and distant,
did not condescend to ask her the cause of her sudden gayety, she ended
by saying aloud:

"Do you know why I am laughing? If I kept you waiting a bit longer, it
was because I met a friend of mine, an attendant in the house, just as
I left the office. She's one of those who put the babies out to nurse in
the provinces.* Well, my friend told me that she was going to Rougemont
to-morrow with two other attendants, and that among others they would
certainly have with them the little fellow I had just left at the
hospital."

* There are only about 600 beds at the Hopital des Enfants
Assistes, and the majority of the children deposited there
are perforce placed out to purse in the country.--Trans.

Again did she give vent to a dry laugh which distorted her wheedling
face. And she continued: "How comical, eh? The mother wouldn't let me
take the child to Rougemont, and now it's going there just the same. Ah!
some things are bound to happen in spite of everything."

Mathieu did not answer, but an icy chill had sped through his heart. It
was true, fate pitilessly took its own course. What would become of
that poor little fellow? To what early death, what life of suffering or
wretchedness, or even crime, had he been thus brutally cast?

But the cab continued rolling on, and for a long while neither Mathieu
nor La Couteau spoke again. It was only when the latter alighted in
the Rue de Miromesnil that she began to lament, on seeing that it was
already half-past five o'clock, for she felt certain that she would miss
her train, particularly as she still had some accounts to settle and
that other child upstairs to fetch. Mathieu, who had intended to keep
the cab and drive to the Northern terminus, then experienced a
feeling of curiosity, and thought of witnessing the departure of the
nurse-agents. So he calmed La Couteau by telling her that if she would
make haste he would wait for her. And as she asked for a quarter of an
hour, it occurred to him to speak to Norine again, and so he also went
upstairs.

When he entered