Madame is kind; she will let me sleep this afternoon, perhaps." I handed her the medicine, and then asked: "How long have you known Mrs.
Falchion, Miss Caron ?" "Only one year." "Where did you join her ?" "In Australia." "In Australia?
You lived there ?" "No, monsieur, I did not live there." A thought came to my mind--the nearness of New Caledonia to Australia, and New Caledonia was a French colony--a French penal colony! I smiled as I said the word penal to myself.

Of course the word could have no connection with a girl like her, but still she might have lived in the colony.

So I added quietly: "You perhaps had come from New Caledonia ?" Her look was candid, if sorrowful.

"Yes, from New Caledonia." Was she, thought I, the good wife of some convict--some political prisoner ?--the relative of some refugee of misfortune?
Whatever she was, I was sure that she was free from any fault.

She evidently thought that I might suspect something uncomplimentary of her, for she said: "My brother was an officer at Noumea.