If thou seest a nosegay of pinks displayed in the window, if it be ever so faded--nay, if thou seest two or three nosegays of pinks, remember, buy them all, and bring them to me, I have so great a desire for the smell.' She fell back weak and exhausted.

Pierre hurried out.
Now was the time; here was the clue to the long inspection of the nosegay in this very shop.
"Sure enough, there was a drooping nosegay of pinks in the window.

Pierre went in, and, with all his impatience, he made as good a bargain as he could, urging that the flowers were faded, and good for nothing.

At last he purchased them at a very moderate price.

And now you will learn the bad consequences of teaching the lower orders anything beyond what is immediately necessary to enable them to earn their daily bread! The silly Count de Crequy,--he who had been sent to his bloody rest, by the very canaille of whom he thought so much,--he who had made Virginie (indirectly, it is true) reject such a man as her cousin Clement, by inflating her mind with his bubbles of theories,--this Count de Crequy had long ago taken a fancy to Pierre, as he saw the bright sharp child playing about his court--Monsieur de Crequy had even begun to educate the boy himself to try work out certain opinions of his into practice,--but the drudgery of the affair wearied him, and, beside, Babette had left his employment.