"Something however induced you to come--you are not one of those
triflers who go hither and thither without a motive. I think you are
intellectual and intelligent. Reflect. What induced you to take a
place in the diligence and come to see me? Eh!"

"Well, sir," said she, passing her hands over her cheeks as if to wipe
away all blushes and embarrassment, and at the same time pushing her
long black curls, moist as they were with perspiration, beyond her
ears, "I had an idea which permitted me neither to sleep by day nor
night; I said to myself, Reine, you must be satisfied. You must say
nothing to any one. You must shut up your shop on Saturday night as
you are in the habit of doing. You must take a place in the night
diligence and go on Sunday to Marseilles. You will go to see that
gentleman, and on Monday morning you can again be at work. All will
then be over and for once in your life you will have been satisfied
without your neighbors having once fancied for a moment that you have
passed the limits of the street in which you live."

"Why, however, did you wish so much to see me? How did you even know
that I was here?"

"Thus, Monsieur: a person came to Aix who was very kind to me, for I
am the dressmaker of his daughters, having previously been a servant
in his mother's country-house. The family has always been kind
and attentive, because in Provence, the nobles do not despise the
peasants. Ah! it is far otherwise--some are lofty and others humble,
but their hearts are all alike. _Monsieur_ and the young ladies knew
how I loved to read, and that I am unable to buy books and newspapers.
They sometimes lent books to me, when they saw anything which they