"Now," said La Rouquerie, after she had put thirty francs into poor Perrine's hand, "you must take him to my place, for I'm beginning to know him and he's quite capable of refusing to come with me. I don't live far from here." But Grain-of-Salt would not consent to do this; he declared that the distance was too far for him. "You go with the lady alone," he said to Perrine, "and don't be too cut up about your donkey. He'll be all right with her. She's a good woman." "But how shall I find my way back to Charonne?" asked Perrine, bewildered. She dreaded to be lost in the great city. "You follow the fortifications ... nothing easier." As it happened, the street where La Rouquerie lived was not far from the Horse Market, and it did not take them long to get there. There were heaps of garbage before her place, just like in Guillot Field. The moment of parting had come. As she tied Palikare up in a little stable, her tears fell on his head. "Don't take on so," said the woman; "I'll take care of him, I promise you." "We loved him so much," said little Perrine. Then she went on her way. CHAPTER III "POOR LITTLE GIRL" What was she to do with thirty francs when she had calculated that they must at least have one hundred? She turned this question over in her mind sadly as she walked along by the fortifications. She found her way back easily. She put the money into her mother's hand, for she did not know how to spend it. It was her mother who decided what to do. "We must go at once to Maraucourt," she said. "But are you strong enough?" Perrine asked doubtfully. "I must be. We have waited too long in the hope that I should get better. And while we wait our money is going. What poor Palikare has brought us will go also. I did not want to go in this miserable state...." "When must we go? Today?" asked Perrine. "No; it's too late today. We must go tomorrow morning. You go and find out the hours of the train and the price of the tickets. It is the Gare du Nord station, and the place where we get out is Picquigny." Perrine anxiously sought Grain-of-Salt. He told her it was better for her to consult a time table than to go to the station, which was a long way off. From the time table they learned that there were two trains in the morning, one at six o'clock and one at ten, and that the fare to Picquigny, third class, was nine francs twenty-five centimes. "We'll take the ten o'clock train," said her mother, "and we will take a cab, for I certainly cannot walk to the station." And yet when nine o'clock the next day came she could not even get to the cab that Perrine had waiting for her. She attempted the few steps from her room to the cab, but would have fallen to the ground had not Perrine held her. "I must go back," she said weakly. "Don't be anxious ... it will pass." But it did not pass, and the Baroness, who was watching them depart, had to bring a chair. The moment she dropped into the seat she fainted.