"Who else?" "A young girl of about fifteen or so, brought here yesterday evening. She was so weak that they were obliged to support her. The sister said that the young lady and her mother were very reputable persons, who had been ruined." "And is her mother here, too?" "No, the mother was too ill to be moved. The poor girl would not leave, so they took advantage of her fainting to convey her. The proprietor of a wretched lodging-house, for fear they should die in his rooms, made the report at the police station. She is there--in the bed opposite you." "And she is fifteen? The age of my eldest girl!" And Jeanne Duport wept bitterly. "Pardon me," said La Lorraine, "if I have given you pain unconsciously in speaking of your children! Are they, too, ill?" "Alas! I do not know. What will become of them if I remain here for a week?" "And your husband?" "As we are friends together, Lorraine, I will tell you my troubles, as you have told me yours, and that will comfort me. My husband was an excellent workman, but became dissipated, and forsook me and my children, after having sold everything we possessed. I went to work; some good souls aided me, and I began to get easy again, and was bringing up my little family as well as I could, when my husband returned with a vile creature, his mistress, and again stripped me of everything; and so I had to begin all over again." "Poor Jeanne! You could not help it." "I ought to have separated myself from him in law,--but, as my brother says, the law is too dear! I went to see my brother one day, and he gave me three francs, which he had collected amongst the prisoners on telling his tales. So I took courage, believing my husband would not return for a very long time, as he had taken all he could from us. But I was mistaken," added the poor creature, with a shudder; "there was my poor Catherine still to take!" "Your daughter?"