"For what other? There's no other lot for me." "Tell me, La Louve," continued Fleur-de-Marie, after a moment's silence, "do you not sometimes like to build castles in the air here in prison? It is so amusing." "Castles in the air?" "About Martial." "Martial?" "Yes." "Ma foi, I never have." "Let me build one for you and Martial." "What's the use?" "To pass the time." "Well, let us see this castle." "Just imagine, for example, that by chance you should meet some one who should say to you, 'Abandoned by your father and mother, your childhood has been surrounded by bad examples; that you must be pitied as much as blamed for having become--'" "Having become what?" "What you and I--have become," answered Goualeuse, in a soft voice. "Suppose this person were to say to you, 'You love Martial--he loves you; leave your present mode of life, and become his wife.'" La Louve shrugged her shoulders. "Do you think he would take me for his wife?" "Except his poaching, has he ever committed any other culpable action?" "No; he is a poacher on the river, as he was in the woods; and he is right. Are not fish, like game, the property of those who can take them? Where is the mark of their owner?" "Well, suppose, having renounced this, he wishes to become an honest man; suppose that he inspired, by the frankness of his good resolutions, enough confidence in an unknown benefactor to be given a place--as gamekeeper, for instance. To a poacher, it would be to his liking. It is the same trade, only lawful." "Lord! yes; it is life in the woods." "Only this place would be given to him on the sole condition that he would marry you and take you with him." "I go with Martial?" "Yes; you would be happy, you say, to live together in a forest. Would you not like better, instead of a miserable poacher's hut where you would hide yourselves like criminals, to have a nice little cottage, of which you should be the active, industrious housekeeper?" "You make fun of me. Can this be possible?" [Illustration: THE SCAFFOLD] "Who knows? though it is only a castle." "Ah, true; very well." "I say, La Louve, it seems to me I already see you established in your cottage in the forest, with your husband, and two or three children. What happiness!" "Children! Martial!" cried La Louve; "oh, yes, they would be _proudly_ loved." "How much company they would be for you in your solitude. Then, when they began to grow up, they could render you some assistance. The smallest could pick up the dead branches for your fire; the largest could drive to pasture the cow which has been given to your husband for his activity; for, having been a poacher himself, he would make all the better gamekeeper." "Just so; that's true. Ah, these castles in the air are amusing. Tell me some more, La Goualeuse."