"He's a boy, and it was he who sang so beautifully. Mercy, who could have expected it? He was so pleasing as a girl; however, I believe he will be still better as a boy. Oh, I wish it was evening now. He said that he loved me--how strange that is--do I also love him? I believe I do. However, I must ask Marguerite what love is, she ought to know that. Poor Marguerite, how surprised she'll be when she learns that he was not a girl. Oh, I wish it was day now." The day so much desired appeared at length. Blanche had been up for a long time; impatient at not hearing the old nurse come down, she could not resist going up to Marguerite's room. She knocked at the door, exclaiming,-- "Wake up, dear nurse! it's very late. I have a thousand things to tell you. Get up, I beg of you--you have slept long enough." Marguerite, who never had to be awakened, because she always rose sufficiently early, rubbed her eyes, believing that the house was on fire, sought to recall her ideas, to recover the talisman which had been entrusted to her and which had been lost among the bedclothes, while invoking her patron saint, and muttering,-- "Where has it gone to? I've looked for it--has the devil taken it away from me during the night? Wait now--ah, I shan't find it again. I thought I felt something. It must have been the devil who took it maliciously!" Finally Marguerite found the little scrap of Urbain's breeches, and recalling all that had taken place on the evening before, she hastened to open the door to Blanche, and said,-- "Has Ursule gone? It's necessary to hasten her away, my child." "Oh, yes, she's gone; that is to say, he's gone. But don't be afraid, my good friend is willing that he should come--he wishes him to marry me; he's no longer angry. He's coming here this evening as a boy; you will see how nice he is; and when we are married, we shall go into the country and you shall come with us. Oh, how happy I shall be! Come, Marguerite, laugh too; you see it's no longer necessary to have any fear." Marguerite had no desire to laugh, she would rather have wept, for she understood nothing that Blanche was saying; she opened her eyes as widely as possible and exclaimed,-- "O good God, my dear child, is your head turned this morning? Can that Ursule be a sorcerer? Don't jump like that, I beg of you." Blanche recommenced her narrative and at last made Marguerite understand that Ursule was a boy. The old woman cried, affrightedly,-- "My God! a boy, and he slept with you?" "Oh, no, dear nurse, because Monsieur Touquet came in just at the moment when--mercy! I don't know what we were doing at that moment--oh, yes, I believe he was kissing me." "Holy Virgin! it was a goblin disguised as a girl." "No, dear nurse, he's called Urbain, he's an orphan like me; but his family was very respectable, and he's going to marry me." "To marry you?" "Yes, certainly. You won't oppose it when my protector has given his consent, will you?"