Her heart was fluttering and her hands were shaking as she put the locket about the child's neck. Then she sat by the little cradle. Before she knew it, the tears were falling down her cheeks. Why did she care this way? Suzanne asked herself. She had lived alone for many years. For many years she had had nothing to love. Why could she not go on? Why must this tiny bit of life, sleeping so sweetly before her, make all this difference and make her cry? Jeanne stirred. The little pink hands went up. It was a gesture Suzanne had come to love, to wait for, to thrill at. Slowly she raised Jeanne from the cradle and held her. The baby's hands gently touched her cheeks. One little hand was patting a wet, wet cheek. Then it stopped, and a soft head slowly sank upon Suzanne's breast. Jeanne was asleep. Suzanne sat staring ahead of her. The baby had made a decision for Suzanne. Cruelly and unfairly, in her mind Suzanne blamed little Jeanne for the decision she made that night. But her torn heart could not have stood the blame. She knew and felt only one thing. To the sleeping child she cried, "I cannot, cannot give you up, my little Jeanne. Never, never!" The locket with the soldier's picture was put away under lock and key. And Madame Villard continued to wait for her grandchild. CHAPTER VI JEANNE Jeanne grew under the loving and tender care of Suzanne. Never once did Suzanne approach the stately apartment house on the Avenue Champs Elysées. Never once did she allow Jeanne to go in that direction. [Illustration: JEANNE] Several years passed. Jeanne was now a tall girl. But still Auntie Sue had a terrible feeling about that apartment house. Suzanne was still known as Auntie Sue. And between the poor little dressmaker and Jeanne, Auntie Sue's Shop had grown up in Paris. Paris, you know, is the place from which your mother's or auntie's or grandmother's most fashionable clothes come. Nearly everyone who visits Paris buys a Parisian gown. The French are well dressed. The French dressmakers know well how to cut and fit and sew. Then, too, when little ones go to Paris with their mothers, they, too, are fitted with dresses and hats and coats made by the Parisian dressmakers. Auntie Sue fitted many, many children. She fitted children who lived in Paris, also children who came from America and Spain and Italy and Germany and from other parts of the world. For Auntie Sue's Shop was well known. It was known because, for one thing, Auntie Sue was clever and could make beautiful children's clothes. [Illustration: THE WINDOW OF AUNTIE SUE'S SHOP IN PARIS] It was known for another reason, and perhaps a better one. That reason was Jeanne! Jeanne put on all of Auntie's little models. She showed them to the people who came to buy clothes for their children. Jeanne walked about the pretty little room, with its dainty show-cases and Parisian dolls and model coats and hats. She walked about the room and wore the clothes that Auntie Sue had made.