In order to console her mistress by her own example, Felicite said:

"Why, Madame, I haven't had any news since six months!--"

"From whom?--"

The servant replied gently:

"Why--from my nephew."

"Oh, yes, your nephew!" And shrugging her shoulders, Madame Aubain
continued to pace the floor as if to say: "I did not think of
it.--Besides, I do not care, a cabin-boy, a pauper!--but my
daughter--what a difference! just think of it!--"

Felicite, although she had been reared roughly, was very indignant. Then
she forgot about it.

It appeared quite natural to her that one should lose one's head about
Virginia.

The two children were of equal importance; they were united in her heart
and their fate was to be the same.

The chemist informed her that Victor's vessel had reached Havana. He had
read the information in a newspaper.

Felicite imagined that Havana was a place where people did nothing
but smoke, and that Victor walked around among negroes in a cloud of
tobacco. Could a person, in case of need, return by land? How far was