ts which she would have to make before
returning home. The refectory, with its wine-stained tables and greasy
walls, cast a smell like that of a badly-kept sink.

"Ah! so you know La Couteau!" exclaimed Boutan, when Mathieu had told
him of his meetings with the woman. "Then you know the depths of crime.
La Couteau is an ogress! And yet, think of it, with our fine social
organization, she is more or less useful, and perhaps I myself shall be
happy to choose one of the nurses that she has brought with her."

At this moment Madame Broquette very amiably asked the visitors into her
office. After long reflection, the old gentleman had gone off without
selecting any nurse, but saying that he would return some other time.

"There are folks who don't know their own minds," said Madame Broquette
sententiously. "It isn't my fault, and I sincerely beg you to excuse me,
doctor. If you want a good nurse you will be satisfied, for I have just
received some excellent ones from the provinces. I will show you."

Herminie, meanwhile, had not condescended to raise her nose from her
novel. She remained ensconced in her armchair, still reading, with
a weary, bored expression on her anaemic countenance. Mathieu, after
sitting down a little on one side, contented himself with looking on,
while Boutan stood erect, attentive to every detail, like a commander
reviewing his troops. And the procession began.

Having opened a door which communicated with the common room, Madame
Broquette, assuming the most noble airs, leisurely introduced the pick
of her nurses, in groups of three, each with her infant in her arms.
About a dozen were thus inspected: short ones with big heavy limbs, tall
ones suggesting maypoles, dark ones with coarse stiff hair, fair ones
with the whitest of skins, quick ones and slow ones, ugly ones and
others who were pleasant-looking. All, however, wore the same nervous,
silly smile, all swayed themselves with embarrassed timidity, the
anxious mien of the bondswoman at the slave market, who fears that she
may not find a purchaser. They clumsily tried to put on graceful ways,
radiant with internal joy directly a customer seemed to nibble, but
clouding over and casting black glances at their companions when the
latter seemed to have the better chance. Out of the dozen the doctor
began by setting three aside, and finally he detained but one, in order
that he might study her more fully.

"One can see that Monsieur le Docteur kn