But I did not care--my heart was hard, my little young ladies and young Monsieur--my heart was hard, and I would not listen to the voices that were speaking in my conscience.
"'It is too bad,' I said, 'that the chances of one's life should be spoilt for such fancies;' and I went quickly out of the cottage and shut the door.

But as I went I saw my poor bon papa lift his head, which he had bent down on his hands, and say to my mother, "'There will be no more apples this year on the pommier de la petite.
Thou wilt see, my daughter, the fortune of the tree will leave it.' "I heard my mother say something meant to comfort him, but I only hurried away the faster.
"What my grandfather meant about my wishing to leave him was this,--my new friends had put it in my head to ask my parents to consent to my going to Paris with the family in which the two that I told you of were maid and valet.

They had spoken of me to their lady; she knew I had not much experience, and had never left home.

She did not care for that, she said.

She wanted a nice pretty girl to amuse her little boy, and walk out with him.