Registered by the name of Genevieve and baptized at Soulanges, the little Dalmatian was taken under the protection of Mademoiselle Laguerre, who was touched by her story.

It seems as if it were the destiny of the child to be taken care of by the owners of Les Aigues! Pere Niseron obtained its clothes, and now and then some help in money from Mademoiselle." The countess and Olympe were just then standing before a window from which they could see Michaud approaching the abbe and Blondet, who were walking up and down the wide, semi-circular gravelled space which repeated on the park side of the pavilion the exterior half-moon; they were conversing earnestly.
"Where is she ?" said the countess; "you make me anxious to see her." "She is gone to carry milk to Mademoiselle Gaillard at the gate of Conches; she will soon be back, for it is more than an hour since she started." "Well, I'll go and meet her with those gentlemen," said Madame de Montcornet, going downstairs.
Just as the countess opened her parasol, Michaud came up and told her that the general had left her a widow for probably two days.
"Monsieur Michaud," said the countess, eagerly, "don't deceive me, there is something serious going on.

Your wife is frightened, and if there are many persons like Pere Fourchon, this part of the country will be uninhabitable--" "If it were so, madame," answered Michaud, laughing, "we should not be in the land of the living, for nothing would be easier than to make away with us.

The peasant's grumble, that is all.

But as to passing from growls to blows, from pilfering to crime, they care too much for life and the free air of the fields.