Madame Pipelet affected the most lively regret. "Really," cried she, "you are doomed to be unlucky!" "How so?" "M. Bradamanti has not yet returned." "Upon my word, this is enough to tire a saint!" "So it is, I declare, Madame Seraphin. I'm sure I'm as sorry about it as if it was my own self." "I had so much to say to him." "It is all for the world as though you were bewitched!" "Why, yes, it is so much the more vexatious, because I have to find all manner of excuses to run down here; for, if once M. Ferrand were to find out that I came to consult a quack doctor, he who is so devout, so scrupulous in all things, we should have a fearful scene!" "La! He is just like Alfred, who is so silly that really he is afraid of everything and everybody!" "And you do not know, I suppose, when M. Bradamanti will return home?" "No, not precisely; but I know very well that he expects some one about six or seven o'clock this evening, for he told me to request the person to call again, should he not be at home at the time mentioned. So, if you will call again in the evening, you will be sure to see him." But, as Anastasie said these words, she mentally added, "I would not have you too sure of that; in an hour's time he will be on his road to Normandy!" "Very well, then," said Madame Seraphin, with an air of considerable chagrin. Then, pausing a brief space, she added, "I had also something to say to you, my dear Madame Pipelet. You know, I suppose, what happened to that girl, Louise Morel, whom everybody thought so good and virtuous--" "Oh, pray don't mention her!" replied Madame Pipelet, rolling her eyes with affected horror. "It makes one's hair stand on end." "I merely alluded to her by way of saying that we are now quite without a servant, and that, if you should chance to hear of a well-disposed, honest, and industrious young person, I should take it as a favour if you would send her to us. Upon my word, girls of good character are so difficult to be met with that one had need search in twenty places at once to find one." "Depend upon it, Madame Seraphin, that, should I hear of anybody likely to suit you, I will let you know; but, in my opinion, good situations are more rare even than good servants." Then, again relapsing into a fit of abstraction, Anastasie added, though mentally, "A likely story that I should send any young girl to be starved to death in your dungeon of a house; your master is too stingy and hard-hearted! The idea of throwing that poor Louise and M. Germain both in prison!" "I need not tell you," continued Madame Seraphin, "what a still, quiet house ours is; any young person must be improved by living in a family where there is continually something to be learned; and that Louise must have been naturally a depraved creature, to turn out badly spite of the good and religious advice bestowed on her by M. Ferrand."