"_Ah, bon jour! Bon jour! Ah, c'est Madame_!" "Yes," rejoined Josephine St.Auban, "it is I.

And I am glad to see St.Genevieve again, and you, Monsieur Hector.

Tell me,--ah, about that infant, that baby of ours!! "Madame, believe me, there is none such in all the valley! Come!" It was a proud and happy Jeanne who greeted her former mistress at the little cottage with the green blinds, and the ivy, which lay close upon the street of St.Genevieve,--Jeanne, perhaps a trifle more fleshy, a shade more French and a touch less Parisian in look, more mature and maternal, yet after all, Jeanne, her former maid.
Woman fashion, these two now met, not without feminine tears, and forgetful of late difference in station, although Jeanne dutifully kissed the hand held out to her.

The first coherent speech, as in the case of Hector, was regarding this most extraordinary infant, whose arrival seemed to be thus far regarded as a matter of national importance.

In this view also shared Madame Fournier the elder, mother of Hector, who also presently welcomed the new-comer to the home.
[Illustration: Woman fashion, these two now met.] A strange feeling of relief, of rest and calm, came over Josephine St.Auban, a lady of rank in another world, where an incident such as this could not have been conceived.