"`Better never have seen it, then,' said the woman, earnestly. `Go back to your home, if you have one, my boy, for you look honest and innocent,' but she spoke in a low voice, and glanced round her as if afraid of being overheard. "There was something in her face, in her very timidity, which inspired Pierre with confidence. "`I cannot go back,' he said, speaking also in a low voice. `I have come for a purpose, but I am a complete stranger. Perhaps you can help me. Will you tell me the way to the Rue de Lille?' "The woman looked at him with regret. "`It is not far from here,' she said; `but it is a long street. What house do you want there?' "`The house--the hotel of the Marquis de Sarinet,' he replied, but low as he spoke the woman held up her hand with a warning gesture. "`Hush, hush!' she said, `we know no such names. The citizen Sarinet,' she continued, reflectively; `no, I do not remember ever to have heard of such an one. But there are few houses now inhabited by their former owners in the Rue de Lille. You must ask there, but take care _how_ you ask.' "`Once there, I can find the house, I am sure,' said Pierre; `it has been so well described to me. If you will direct me to the street, that is enough. But first, can you give me a cup of milk? I have had nothing to eat or drink to-day.' "`You shall have some coffee and some bread,' said the woman. `I always have it ready early in the morning, as I used to in quieter times. But my customers are less regular than then. Those who spend their nights drinking in the taverns, are not ready betimes. Keep out of such places, my boy, and take my advice--get back to your mother in the country as soon as you can.' "`I wish nothing better,' said Pierre; `but first I must do what I have come for.' "And then the good woman gave him his breakfast, for which he paid her well. `Poor thing, it was not easy for those who stayed quietly at home to get on now-a-days,' she said. Her husband had done no work for long. Where he got what he brought home, though only to waste it, she did not like to ask. "`It is all the same cry now,' she said, waxing bolder in her confidences, and glad to have some one to talk to. "`They won't work. What is the great republic for if they are to go on working, they say? And so they drink and quarrel, and many are half the time starving. One day they feast like princes, and the next they have nothing. Everything is for all, and all are equal, they say; but for my part, I think it is rather take who can, and those who can't go without--no, no, we are a long way off the fine things they promise us yet.'