is child? Yet I can't nurse her now, it is
too late. It is frightful to be in such a position without knowing what
to do. Ah! what will become of me, good Lord?"

Santerre again attempted to console her, but she no longer listened to
him, and he was about to defer all further efforts till another time
when unexpected intervention helped on his designs.

Celeste, who had entered noiselessly, stood there waiting for her
mistress to allow her to speak. "It is my friend who has come to see
me, madame," said she; "you know, the person from my village, Sophie
Couteau, and as she happens to have a nurse with her--"

"There is a nurse here?"

"Oh! yes, madame, a very fine one, an excellent one."

Then, on perceiving her mistress's radiant surprise, her joy at this
relief, she showed herself zealous: "Madame must not tire herself by
holding the little one. Madame hasn't the habit. If madame will allow
me, I will bring the nurse to her."

Heaving a sigh of happy deliverance, Valentine had allowed the servant
to take the child from her. So Heaven had not abandoned her! However,
she began to discuss the matter, and was not inclined to have the nurse
brought there. She somehow feared that if the other one, who was drunk
in her room, should come out and meet the new arrival, she would set
about beating them all and breaking everything. At last she insisted on
taking Santerre and Mathieu into the linen-room, saying that the
latter must certainly have some knowledge of these matters, although he
declared the contrary. Only Gaston and Lucie were formally forbidden to
follow.

"You are not wanted," said their mother, "so stay here and play. But
we others will all go, and as softly as possible, please, so that that
drunken creature may not suspect anything."

Once in the linen-room, Valentine ordered all the doors to be carefully
secured. La Couteau was standing there with a sturdy young person of
five-and-twenty, who carried a superb-looking infant in her arms.
She had dark hair, a low forehead, and a broad face, and was very
respectably dressed. And she made a little courtesy like a well-trained
nurse, who has already served with gentlefolks and knows how to behave.
But Valentine's embarrassment remained extreme; she looked at the nurse
and at the babe like an ignorant woman who, though her elder children
had been brought up in a room adjoining her own, had never troubled or
concerned herself about anything. In her despair, see