"Good little girl! I also have met, by chance, with one who may be called her equal, a young dressmaker, very obliging. I had gone to see my poor brother, who is a prisoner," said Jeanne, after a moment of hesitation; "and I met in the visitors' room this young girl of whom I speak; having heard me say to my brother that I was not happy, she came to me, much embarrassed, to offer what services were in her power." "How kind that was in her!" "I accepted; she gave me her address, and, two days after, this dear little Rigolette--that's her dear name--gave me employment." "Rigolette!" cried La Lorraine. "You know her?" "No; but the young girl who was so generous to me, several times mentioned the name of Rigolette: they were friends together." "Well!" said Jeanne, smiling sadly, "since we are neighbors in sickness, we should be friends like our two benefactresses." "Willingly: my name is Annette Gerbier, otherwise La Lorraine, washer-woman." "And mine, Jeanne Duport, fringe-maker. Ah! it is so good, at the hospital, to find some one who is not altogether a stranger, above all, when you come for the first time, and you have many troubles! But I do not wish to think of this. Tell me, La Lorraine, what was the name of the young girl who has been so kind to you?" "She was called La Goualeuse. All my sorrow is that I have not seen her for a long time. She was as beautiful as the Holy Virgin, with fine flaxen hair and blue eyes, so sweet--so sweet! Unfortunately, notwithstanding her assistance, my poor child died at two months," and Lorraine wiped away a tear. "Poor Lorraine!" "I regret, my child, for myself, not for her, poor little dear! She would have too much to struggle with, for she soon would have been an orphan. I have not a long time to live." "You should not have such ideas at your age. Have you been sick for a long time?" "It will soon be three months. Bless me! when I had to work for myself and my child, I increased my labor; the winter was cold, I caught a cold on my chest; at this time I lost my little girl. In watching her I forgot myself. To that add sorrow, and I am what you see me, consumptive, doomed--as was the actress who has just died." "At your age there is always hope." "The actress was only two years older, and you see---" "She whom the good sisters are watching now, was she an actress?" "Oh, yes--what a fate! She had been beautiful as the day. She had plenty of money, equipages, diamonds, but, unfortunately, the small-pox disfigured her; then want came, then poverty--behold her dead in the hospital. Yet, she was not proud; on the contrary, she was kind and gentle to everybody; she told us that she had written to a gentleman whom she had known in her prosperity, who had loved her; she wrote to him to come and reclaim her body, because it hurt her feelings to think she would be dissected--cut in pieces." "And this gentleman has come?" "No." "Oh! that is very cruel."