Norine's room he found her sitting up in bed, eating one
of the oranges which her little sisters had brought her. She had all the
greedy instincts of a plump, pretty girl; she carefully detached each
section of the orange, and, her eyes half closed the while, her flesh
quivering under her streaming outspread hair, she sucked one after
another with her fresh red lips, like a pet cat lapping a cup of milk.
Mathieu's sudden entry made her start, however, and when she recognized
him she smiled faintly in an embarrassed way.

"It's done," he simply said.

She did not immediately reply, but wiped her fingers on her
handkerchief. However, it was necessary that she should say something,
and so she began: "You did not tell me you would come back--I was not
expecting you. Well, it's done, and it's all for the best. I assure you
there was no means of doing otherwise."

Then she spoke of her departure, asked the young man if he thought she
might regain admittance to the works, and declared that in any case she
should go there to see if the master would have the audacity to turn
her away. Thus she continued while the minutes went slowly by. The
conversation had dropped, Mathieu scarcely replying to her, when La
Couteau, carrying the other child in her arms, at last darted in like
a gust of wind. "Let's make haste, let's make haste!" she cried. "They
never end with their figures; they try all they can to leave me without
a copper for myself!"

But Norine detained her, asking: "Oh! is that Rosine's baby? Pray do
show it me." Then she uncovered the infant's face, and exclaimed: "Oh!
how plump and pretty he is!" And she began another sentence: "What a
pity! Can one have the heart--" But then she remembered, paused, and
changed her words: "Yes, how heartrending it is when one has to forsake
such little angels."

"Good-by! Take care of yourself!" cried La Couteau; "you will make me
miss my train. And I've got the return tickets, too; the five others are
waiting for me at the station! Ah! what a fuss they would make if I got
there too late!"

Then, followed by Mathieu, she hurried away, bounding down the stairs,
where she almost fell with her little burden. But soon she threw herself
back in the cab, which rolled off.

"Ah! that's a good job! And what do you say of that young person,
monsieur? She wouldn't lay out fifteen francs a month on her own
account, and yet she reproaches that good Mademoiselle Rosine, who has
just given me