send for the bonesetter, whose name she had caught and remembered. To
her, Beauvouloir was a being to whom she owed an untold debt of
gratitude; and she desired of all things to question him on certain
points relating to her son. If an attempt were made to poison him, how
should she foil it? In what way ought she to manage his frail
constitution? Was it well to nurse him long? If she died, would
Beauvouloir undertake the care of the poor child's health?

To the questions of the countess, Beauvouloir, deeply touched, replied
that he feared, as much as she did, an attempt to poison Etienne; but
there was, he assured her, no danger as long as she nursed the child;
and in future, when obliged to feed him, she must taste the food
herself.

"If Madame la comtesse," he said, "feels anything strange upon her
tongue, a prickly, bitter, strong salt taste, reject the food. Let the
child's clothes be washed under her own eye and let her keep the key
of the chest which contains them. Should anything happen to the child
send instantly to me."

These instructions sank deep into Jeanne's heart. She begged
Beauvouloir to regard her always as one who would do him any service
in her power. On that the poor man told her that she held his
happiness in her hands.

Then he related briefly how the Comte d'Herouville had in his youth
loved a courtesan, known by the name of La Belle Romaine, who had
formerly belonged to the Cardinal of Lorraine. Abandoned by the count
before very long, she had died miserably, leaving a child named
Gertrude, who had been rescued by the Sisters of the Convent of Poor