"They will be very much pleased with your husband. You will receive from his master some presents; a nice garden. But marry! you will have to work, La Louve, from morning to night." "Oh, if that was all, once along with Martial, work wouldn't make me afraid. I have strong arms." "And you would have enough to occupy them, I answer for it. There is so much to do. There are the meals to prepare, clothes to mend; one day the washing, another day the baking, or the house to clean from top to bottom; so that the other gamekeepers would say, 'Oh, there is not a housekeeper like Martial's wife; from cellar to garret her house is as nice as a new pin; and the children always so neat and clean. It is because she is so industrious.'" "Tell me, La Goualeuse, is it true I would be called Madame Martial?" "It is a great deal better than to be called La Louve, is it not?" "Certainly; I prefer the name of any man to the name of a beast. But, bah! bah! wolf I am born, and wolf I shall die." "Who knows? Do not recoil from a hard but honest life that brings happiness. So, work would not alarm you?" "Oh, no." "And then, besides, it is not all labor: there are moments of repose. In the winter evenings, while your children are asleep, and your husband smoking his pipe, cleaning his gun, or caressing his dogs, you could have a nice quiet time." "Bah! bah! a quiet time, sit with my arms folded. Goodness, no; I would prefer to mend the family linen in the evening, in the chimney-corner; that is not so tiresome. The days are so short in winter." At the words of Fleur-de-Marie, La Louve forgot more and more of the present in these dreams of the future. La Louve did not conceal the wild tastes with which her lover had inspired her. Fleur-de-Marie had thought, with reason, that if her companion would suffer herself to be sufficiently moved at this picture of a rough, poor, and solitary life, to ardently desire to live such a one, this woman would deserve interest and pity. Enchanted at seeing her companion listen with curiosity, La Goualeuse continued, smiling: "And, then you see _Madame Martial_--let me call you so, what do you care?" "On the contrary, it flatters me," said La Louve, shrugging her shoulders, but smiling. "What folly--to play _Madame!_ What children we are! Never mind, go on--it is amusing. You said, then----" "I say, Madame Martial, that in speaking of your mode of living in winter, in the woods, we only think of the worst part of the season." "No, that is not the worst. To hear the wind whistle at night in the forest, and from time to time the wolves howl, far off--far off; I would not find it tiresome, not I, if I am alongside of a good fire, with my man and my brats; or even all alone with my children, while he is gone to make his rounds. Oh! a gun doesn't frighten me. If I had my children to defend, I'd be good then. La Louve would take good care of her cubs!"