. . .myself are starving on twenty sous per day—that is, when she can earn them!" exclaimed the invalid bitterly. "Such is the justice of the world!"

"No! it is not justice!" protested the commander. "It is not just, and
I am here to put an end to such injustice!"

"If you are here to laugh at me," rejoined the woman, with an ominous scowl, "you had better go."

"Laugh at you, madame!—I!—judge me by what I offer. Do you want a pretty room, in a fine house, a servant to wait on you, two delicious meals every day, coffee every morning, and fifty francs a month for your snuff or other little fancies? Eh! what do you say to that?"

"I say—I say—that it's all a lie—or else there is something beneath it. When one offers so much to a poor, crippled old woman, it is not for the love of God, I am sure."

"You are right, Mamma Lacombe; it's for the love of two beautiful e. . . Read More