forget. If I could only know the truth at once it might calm me a
little. Well, let us drive to that woman's now. Oh! I won't go up; you
can go alone, while I wait in the cab at the street corner. And perhaps
you will obtain some news."

It was an insane idea, and he was at first minded to prove this to her.
Then, on looking at her, she seemed to him so wretched, so painfully
tortured, that without a word, making indeed but a kindly gesture of
compassion, he consented. And the cab carried them away.

The large room in which Norine and Cecile lived together was at
Grenelle, near the Champ de Mars, in a street at the end of the Rue de
la Federation. They had been there for nearly six years now, and in the
earlier days had experienced much worry and wretchedness. But the child
whom they had to feed and save had on his side saved them also. The
motherly feelings slumbering in Norine's heart had awakened with
passionate intensity for that poor little one as soon as she had given
him the breast and learnt to watch over him and kiss him. And it was
also wondrous to see how that unfortunate creature Cecile regarded
the child as in some degree her own. He had indeed two mothers, whose
thoughts were for him alone. If Norine, during the first few months, had
often wearied of spending her days in pasting little boxes together, if
even thoughts of flight had at times come to her, she had always been
restrained by the puny arms that were clasped around her neck. And now
she had grown calm, sensible, diligent, and very expert at the light
work which Cecile had taught her. It was a sight to see them both, gay
and closely united in their little home, which was like a convent cell,
spending their days at their little table; while between them was their
child, their one source of life, of hard-working courage and happiness.

Since they had been living thus they had made but one good friend,
and this was Madame Angelin. As a delegate of the Poor Relief Service,
intrusted with one of the Grenelle districts, Madame Angelin had found
Norine among the pensioners over whom she was appointed to watch. A
feeling of affection for the two mothers, as she called the sisters, had
sprung up within her, and she had succeeded in inducing the authorities
to prolong the child's allowance of thirty francs a month for a period
of three years. Then she had obtained scholastic assistance for him, not
to mention frequent presents which she brought--clothes,